The Planeswalker Chronicles
by Anaithnid
Summary: Ranewen has her life turned upside down when her planeswalker spark ignites and she is recruited into the motley bunch led by Sorin Markov and Jace Beleren to help eliminate the Eldrazi. But little does she know where her quest is about to take her...
1. Chapter 1

It was strangely cold for midsummer.

My breath came out in a huff as I darted around a tree trunk, flattening my back against the smooth wood. As I paused to reassess my surroundings, I noted how grateful I was for the change in temperature, however odd it might be. Perhaps the Roil was to blame - But then again, who knows? All I knew for sure was that the chill air and slight breeze kept me from overheating as I ran, and that it dulled my quarry's senses enough so that they were a little less dangerous than usual. Perfect. I could just kill what I needed and then go straight home. It had been a long day, and every single one of my muscles felt as if it were throbbing, not to mention the fact that my eyelids drooped whenever I stood still for too long. I needed to go to bed. Eat and wash first, perhaps, but then go to bed and sleep till sun's height the next day. _Ah yes, that would be nice…_

But just then, I was pulled out of my reverie by the shrieking cry of a baloth – one that sounded far closer than it should have.

My heart leapt in my chest as I spun, and for a horrible moment I couldn't concentrate past the tight grip of fear on me to tap into the mana of the forest all around, to sink my mental fingers deep into the wells of green that flowed through every trunk, every stem, every blade of grass. But then, in a rush, I made the connection, and I felt my body surge with power even as the hulking form of the baloth thundered through the trees and into sight.

I lifted my hands in front of me, and at my unspoken command a little creature made of tangled vines flickered into life at my feet. I let the baloth charge closer, closer – but just as it neared enough to skewer me on one of its lowered head spikes, I whispered something under my breath, and the vine-thing suddenly stretched and entwined its tendrils into a thick net that caught the baloth and sent it crashing to the ground. The beast thrashed about, roaring, but try as it might, it couldn't get free. I took this moment to whisper something else, and an instant later the baloth was scooped up by heavy branches that dipped low, and then passed higher, from branch to branch, before being thrown down with astounding force. I had barely enough time to crouch and brace myself for impact. The subsequent _boom_, accompanied by a sickening crunch that signaled the beast's skull cracking, shook the earth, and me along with it. When the tremors passed and the baloth finally lay still, I sighed in relief and allowed myself a triumphant grin. I could feel my body relax. _That had to have been record time for a kill_!

With a wave of my hand, I dismissed the summoned creature, and then pushed myself to my feet so I could walk over and affectionately stroke the bark of the tree that had aided me, carefully avoiding the blood that was beginning to pour from the dead baloth and pool around my boots. "Thank you," I murmured, smiling as I felt the pulse of mana from within the tree that I always fancied to be its heartbeat. "You were a great help, as always."

The tree responded by reaching one of its tinier limbs down and gently caressing a stray lock of my hair, turned from white blond to nearly brown by the mud that I had fallen in earlier.

I laughed at the gesture. "Yes, I know – I need to take a bath, don't I? This stuff is all over me." Reaching down, I picked a piece of dirt off the hem of my hunting dress. "And wash my clothes, too. They're pretty filthy."

Just then, I felt any icy claw of dread rake across my stomach.

I let out a gasp at the strength of the emotion, and the abruptness, and I could do nothing to stop it from bringing me to my knees. With each passing second it intensified, pulling the breath from my lungs until I felt as if I were suffocating. I wielded magic of considerable power, and I even got a taste of it in return from time to time, but…I had never felt anything remotely like this before. To be honest, I didn't even know if it _was _magic. What in the name of the Roil was going on?

But then, with a start, I recognized the withering touch of black mana.

It was on me before I knew what was happening.

There was a horrible, ghastly wail that sounded like a thousand tortured souls packed into one breath, and then two immense, razor-like claws – real ones this time – sunk into the forest floor on either side of me. An equally immense mass of metallic chest followed, then jagged, spindly legs that planted themselves inches away from my chest. I was fenced in.

Choking back panic, I forced myself to look up – And immediately regretted the decision, because what I saw made me want to scream.

Above me loomed the creature's head, which was disproportionately small for its body but still large enough to dwarf my entire torso. A metallic mask covered where its face should have been, similar in material to the metal covering its chest, and two utterly black holes served as eyes that thinned and stretched grotesquely all the way down to its chin. Above its head floated several hedron-like shapes, spinning and twirling in irregular patterns that made me dizzy to watch. I didn't watch for more than a second, though – There were other, more important things to worry about. Like _not dying_.

Grunting, I rolled to the side just in time to avoid one of the spindly legs spearing me in the gut, and I thrust my consciousness out to the forest around me, and to the rolling hills and stinking swamps that I knew lay beyond. The mana of those places sensed my desperation, and it filled me to the brim in a swirling vortex, an incomprehensible mass that sent me reeling. I couldn't hold onto the differing powers for long, however, and it was a mere moment later that I let it all burst forth from my body in a tremendous explosion. A rift appeared in the air before the creature, shimmering and shifting as it caught the light. The creature shrieked and reared up, legs clawing the air, but before it had time to react further, it was being pulled headfirst into the distortion. Another wail echoed through the trees as its body swiftly disappeared from view, and once it was completely gone the rift simply closed and vanished as well.

I sank down into the bloody dirt, my chest heaving. _What **was** that thing?_

But I didn't have time to contemplate the answer, because a deafening chorus of wails announced the arrival of reinforcements from hell.

This time I reacted instantly, letting out a furious cry as I thrust my clenched fists to my sides and lifted my head to the canopy above me. I called upon whatever green mana I hadn't drained dry to bring forth three towering creatures from the aether – great trees with limbs made of gnarled sections of trunk and faces carved into bark – and I entreated them to attack the incomers, to protect their summoner. They creaked and groaned as they obeyed, moving forth to meet the nightmarish swarm head-on.

It was no use. The trees had barely gotten in two swipes on one of the creatures before they were surrounded by ten more, and each hacked to pieces that dissipated as soon as they tumbled to the ground.

Exhausted from my expenditure of power, I fell to my knees. My breath was coming in ragged gasps as I pleaded, frantically, for help from the trees around me again.

This time, there was no answer.

More and more creatures poured into the grove around me from all sides, some identical to the one I had first killed and its brethren, and others of entirely different shapes, sizes, and even mana signatures. Each one was more terrifying than the last, with limbs that flung outward at impossible angles or gaping maws of teeth as long as my forearm, or tentacles that writhed and extended toward me, snakelike, presumably to wrap around me and squeeze the life from my body.

As the horde drew closer, I felt a terror like nothing I had ever known.

As they formed a circle around me and slowly, methodically, reached out, I screamed.

_No!_

_I don't want to die!_

As that final thought raced through my mind, I felt something swell inside me, something that seemed to erupt from my very center. At first it was like a hum, vibrating my core and spreading outward to my arms and legs as I knelt, drained and helpless, before the dozens of creatures that would in mere moments be the bringers of my death.

But then that hum quickened and turned into a pulsating heat, scorching veins and nerves alike as it raced throughout not only my body, but through my soul.

Inside me, everything was on fire now.

For a moment, time seemed to slow down.

And then, without pretense, my body and soul and everything around me exploded in a blaze of heat and light.

I screamed again as the unearthly inferno whirled around me, around everything – And as I lost myself within its flames, I felt nothing at all.

When I had previously imagined my own death – idle thoughts that I had never let linger too long in a mind that could be put to use towards other, better things – I had always guessed that it would be a great night, falling over me like a shroud that took away every sight and sound and touch, leaving nothing but a darkness that held neither moon nor stars.

I was wrong. There was only light.


	2. Chapter 2

_I'm…_

…_alive…?_

_But that can't be possible…_

Regardless of the probability, though, I could feel the beginnings of a terrible ache spreading from my lower back all the way up to my head, and the sting of bloodied wounds. I opened my eyes slowly, cautiously.

What in the name of every spirit had just happened?

Nearly ten feet off the ground, I lay cradled in the boughs of a young jaddi-tree, my entire body miraculously balanced on only two branches. My limbs were tangled rather thoroughly in a net of hanging vines, which, despite being uncomfortable, helped support my weight and kept me from tumbling to the forest floor below.

When I looked down to that forest floor, though, my entire body stiffened in shock.

There was hardly a patch of ground to be seen amongst the pools of black blood that littered the clearing, as well as the dozens of mangled corpses of the creatures from which it gushed.

Creatures that were supposed to have killed me.

I could feel the strangest mix of profound awe and profound dread spreading through me, chilling my own blood like ice. My head spun. How could this possibly have happened? _How_? I should have been dead, I _had been _dead, I was sure of it! But the _beasts_ were the ones that were lying there lifeless, not me. This was so absurd, so unthinkable…

Finally, after several long moments of baffled pondering, I realized that I wasn't going to be finding the answer I was looking for anytime soon, and decided that my efforts would be put to better use trying to extricate my limbs. Try as I might, though, I couldn't budge them an inch. It didn't help that none of my muscles quite seemed to be working, and that I couldn't find the voice to whisper words of supplication to the tree. _Wonderful_. _What good is being alive if I'm stuck up here without the strength to call for help?_

As if in answer to my silent gripe, there was a rustling in the underbrush below, and a figure emerged.

I had never met anyone in my life who really fit the label of 'tall, dark, and handsome,' but this stranger…he fit it almost _too_ perfectly.

A foreigner, for certain. He wore the garb of a decorated swordsman – long black cloak; shining, filigreed silver armor; even an elegant longsword hanging from his belt. His skin was the color of charred pewter, and his hair was long enough to fall neatly about his shoulders, and white enough that I guessed him to be a very old man. A very well-built old man, perhaps, but no – When he stepped out into the clearing, unconcerned with the blood or the corpses of baloth and eldritch abomination alike, I got a better look at his face. I was surprised to see that it belonged to a _young_ man. He couldn't have been older than his late twenties – a very attractive late twenties, might I add. Despite having just risen from the dead (or whatever in the spirits' names had happened to me), I felt my skin flush when he paused, looked up, and flashed me a smile as dazzlingly white as his hair.

Wordlessly, he strode over to where I hung limp, and his remarkable height combined with the reach of his sword had cut me free from the vines in mere moments. With those bonds no longer holding me fast, my balance on the branches wavered. I didn't have the physical strength to right myself, much less lower myself safely down, and so I could do nothing but let out a squeak as I felt myself slip away and into the air. Mercifully, however, the fall was cut short. The man let out a little grunt when he caught me, arms snug beneath my knees and around my shoulders – a perfect bridal carry.

I blushed another five shades of red.

"Um…who are you?"

Gently lowering me to the ground, the man gave a soft chuckle. My breath caught in my throat at the sound of it, at the too-perfect way it rumbled like thunder in the hills, and from that point on I couldn't stop looking at him. Where his hand remained on my arm to steady me, my skin tingled. "You, my young planeswalker, may call me Sorin." He pulled back then, drawing up to his full, impressive height. "I cast a spell last I was here in order to tell me when another of us was born, but I must say…I did not expect Zendikar to choose another young, comely elf maiden." He shrugged languidly, his lips curling in a roguish grin. "But such is fate."

I knew he had said something else that I should be focusing on, but that focus would be hard-pressed to control me. _A mage too? I must be dreaming._

And my cheeks were on fire! They had to be. How else could I explain their heat?

"Do you hope to gain something with this flattery?" I could hear my voice, though the girlish giggle it was now wrapped up in made me doubt that it was my own. To my even greater surprise, I found myself looking up at him and smiling coyly. Coyly! _Since when have I been such a flirt? _"I must admit that I'm…unaccustomed to receiving it."

The man – Sorin – shrugged again, though not without an intimate raise of his brow. "An ally, perhaps. I see you have met the brood lineage." For a moment – far too long a moment, if you asked me – his gaze left me to travel in a circle around him, noting the abominations littering the ground, grotesque even in death. "Their masters are my concern, and I am gathering allies in order to contain them once more."

Despite my sudden and powerful infatuation, his mention of the creatures piqued my interest enough to wipe the smile off my face and send my eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "Brood lineage?" I asked, head tilting. "Is that what you call these…things?" I gestured vaguely with a hand, too weak still to lift my arm very high.

Sorin nodded. "Indeed. Their masters are known as the Eldrazi, and they are the real threat. The brood lineage is merely a symptom of a far graver sickness." He hefted a sigh and looked down at the body parts strewn about his feet, an expression of distaste marring the beauty of his visage. His gaze didn't seem to be on them, though, but on something else entirely. "They are the minions of the titans, parasites from the Blind Eternities that I, along with my allies, sealed away here long ago. But with the Eldrazi newly released from their prison, these beasts roam free – sowing destruction and chaos in their wake, preparing for their masters to finish the job. It is…troubling."

I shook my head, letting this new bit of knowledge sink in. I had no idea where the Blind Eternities was, and neither had I heard of it from any of the travelers that had previously stopped in my village. That was a question for later, though. If I was to ask the question that hovered at the edge of my mind, it was now or never. "This 'brood lineage…'" For a moment I hesitated, and my still-weak voice cracked slightly. But I wasn't about to let that stop me. "I was out hunting when they surrounded me. I thought I was about to die. But I didn't. I…" Shaking my head again, I lifted my hands, palms-up, to eye level. "There was this huge burst of fire, and then I lost touch with everything. When I was aware again, I was up in that tree, and they were all….like this. Dead." After a breath I looked up at him, straight into his eyes, which I noticed to my surprise were red. It was unnerving. "You must have been close by when all of this happened, right? So did you see anything?"

Far from what I had expected his reaction to be, Sorin chuckled again. I felt a shiver run down my spine at his baritone voice, and it took every ounce of my willpower to hold back from throwing myself at him. "Ah, my beautiful girl…did you not hear what I said? How I called you 'planeswalker?'"

I frowned, having to think past the fact that he had just called me beautiful in order to remember what he was speaking of. "I…yes, I do, actually. But I don't know what that means."

He laughed now, sounding genuinely amused. "It means, dear, that you can traverse the space between planes. The Blind Eternities.

"You are one of the gifted few who can walk among worlds."

For a moment I didn't seem to process what he had just said. But then a moment after that, the weight of his words hit me like a wave, and I gasped aloud. My knees buckled beneath me, and I thanked the spirits silently that Sorin, who reached out to slip an arm around my waist and right me, had good reaction timing. When it was clear that I wasn't going to tip over, his arm released me, though not before his hand ghosted upwards, featherlight, across my own arm. Goosebumps raised on my skin wherever he touched.

"Wha-what did you say? I can _walk among worlds_?"

Still looking amused, Sorin nodded. He appeared as if he were trying to hold back a smile. "Yes, that's right. Though I have to admit, I'm surprised – It isn't odd to you, the thought that there are other worlds beyond your own?"

Reeling, I shook my head. "No. No, not really. I've felt mana from unfamiliar places before, once or twice, when using my magic. I didn't know why I knew, but I _knew_ that it wasn't from Zendikar. It was just…a gut feeling, I guess. A really strong gut feeling."

Sorin shrugged, the motion fluid. "It makes sense. I've seen such things happen before, in other walkers." He reached out to touch my chin with a single crooked finger, and let his breath out in a quiet laugh. "So don't get a swelled head and think yourself _special_ and _unique_, despite your most enchanting appearance. If you are to prove yourself as powerful, then you must earn the use of that word."

My cheeks were aflame again from his touch and his compliment, however hard I tried to prevent it. And this time I _was _trying, because I could feel a distinct something gnawing at my gut, doing its damndest to get me to pay attention to it. I would, but…just not yet. "So…wait. You said that I'm a planeswalker, which is all well and good if this isn't just some crazy rite of passage to enter into the afterlife, but you didn't say what that has to do with…this." I gestured with a sweep of my arm around me, indicating the brood lineage. "With why they're lying here slaughtered."

Another shrug from Sorin. I marveled a second time at how smooth and elegant he could make a mere roll of the shoulders. "Simple. Your spark – the magical potential inside of you that makes you a planeswalker – ignited. Strange things happen when planeswalker sparks ignite." He hesitated for a moment, surveying his surroundings again with a cocked brow before turning back to fix me with a grin. "From the looks of it, you were thrust through the Blind Eternities to a plane of pure green mana, where you called upon all that mana to aid you here. Can you not see the remnants of your efforts?"

I hadn't looked closer at the dead brood than I had thought I needed to, but now that I glanced around with a more scrutinizing eye, I saw shredded bits of thorned vines, both scattered among what foliage still remained on the ground as well as impaled through massive heads and torsos. I closed my eyes and focused what little energy I had left, trying to catch whatever traces of the spell still hung in the air. When I did, I recognized my mark, indicating the spell as mine, as easily as I would recognize my own scent.

Suddenly, I found it very hard to breathe.

"Well? Do you believe me now?"

Sorin's voice brought me swiftly out of my own head and back to the world around me. He was watching me with a patient expression, his arms crossed over his chest. When I opened my mouth to speak, found that I didn't know what to say, and closed it again, he sighed. I could do nothing but nod.

"If you truly are convinced of the truth of what I say, then I will finish my explanation, and then we can discuss what steps we need to take next. Fair?"

I nodded again.

He cleared his throat and paused for a moment to smile at me, a slow, almost easy sort of smile. Casual. Something that he would only share with an intimate companion.

That something in my gut roared up again, even as my pulse fluttered.

"So," he began, "as I was saying. If the Eldrazi titans can be contained, then the remnants of the brood lineage can be slain easily enough, and no more will spawn. But also as I said, the brood is not our main concern. The Eldrazi feed on existence itself, consuming mana and souls. They thrive on death." His eyes darkened as he fixed me with his gaze, and I could feel my chest tighten under its weight. "If left unchecked, then they will eventually consume your whole world and spread throughout the multiverse with their insatiable hunger. As long as they exist, unimpeded, this fate is inevitable. _That _is our concern."

My body trembled slightly as I tried to imagine creatures more terrifying than the ones I had already faced, and then proceeded to imagine them wreaking havoc across all the lands that I had grown to know and love. All the jaddi-tree forests, the wind-swept plains…even the black and putrefying swamps, with their strange clicks and cries that never failed to pique my curiosity as to what lay in their depths.

But what was worse, what chilled me to my very core, was the thought of them taking the lives of everyone I held dear.

"No…" I found myself whispering. "My tribe…"

Sorin's gaze hardened as he stared at me, somehow managing to turn even more solemn that it had been previously. "Not only your tribe," he murmured, "but the very earth under your feet will be gone. Once they devour all magic, matter will be next, and this combined consumption will free the titans from their prisons of flesh that I managed to force them into. They will become one with the aether, and will be able to traverse the Blind Eternities from world to world as we walkers do. Then…"

He shook his head, closing his eyes and reaching out to place a hand on my shoulder. His grip was firm, and somehow…colder than when he had touched me before. I blinked at the strangeness of the difference, but tried not to pay it any heed as I continued listening, rapt, to what he had to say.

"Then we will be utterly lost.

"There is one small consolation, however – I chose this plane, Zendikar, to be their initial resting place because mana here is chaotic and powerful. They will have difficulty accessing it, much less draining it. It is not something they are familiar with. It will buy us some time…but some is not forever. " Sorin opened his eyes again, and they were startlingly wide when they found my own and held my gaze in an iron grip. His hand on my shoulder lifted, tracing a path up the side of my neck as it made its way to my cheek. Where it passed, his fingernails left tiny red lines that stung ever so slightly.

"Every heart runs dry, given enough time to bleed."

Suddenly, with a jolt, I realized that looking at him didn't make me feel as if I wanted nothing more than to faint into his arms and melt against his lips.

It made me feel fear.

"Sorin…" I whispered hoarsely, reaching up to place my hand over his wrist. My heart was racing, though not for the same reason that it had earlier. "It's awfully convenient that you were _right there _when my planeswalker spark ignited…isn't it?"

He chuckled darkly, and the hand that caressed my cheek suddenly dug its fingernails into my skin. Hard.

"Ah, my dear one, I was afraid this might happen.

"But luckily, I planned for this…eventuality."

As his gaze bore into me, I found that I couldn't speak, couldn't breathe, couldn't even move. A surge of want, stronger than I had ever imagined feeling, threatened to overwhelm me.

"You'll be just as useful as my slave as you would have been my ally."

I could think of nothing but the sound of his voice, the scent of his skin, the heat of his breath against my lips as he pulled me in, closer …

"_NO_!"

I gasped in air, thrusting my palms against his chest and shoving hard. My legs felt like lead as I stumbled backward to slump against the trunk of a nearby tree. Everything was spinning. My heart pounded. My stomach churned. I felt violently sick.

The horrible realization hit me even before his lips drew back in a monstrous grin to reveal gleaming white fangs where his incisors should have been.

_Vampire_.


	3. Chapter 3

Before I could even react, Sorin had drawn his longsword in a clatter of steel and was lunging toward me.

I threw myself to the side, though not swiftly enough. The blade slashed forward with vicious intent and left a long cut across the length of my throat, just barely missing my jugular. When the pain flared as I fell and rolled away on the ground, I gasped, and clutched my hands to my wound in a desperate attempt to staunch the flow of blood. This accomplished little, except to stain my fingers a bright red. There was no time to think.

I rolled again, away from the stabbing blow he had aimed right at my heart. When I forced myself to my feet and ducked to avoid a powerful slash, my entire body was coated in the stinking black blood of the brood.

Already being as weak as I was, and now with the still-bleeding cut on my throat that was making me dizzier by the second, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to keep up this dance much longer.

Sorin's eyes were lit with a fire from within. The grin that curled his lips as he threw his entire weight into a diagonal slash – which hit its mark and sent me tumbling backwards, crying out – was feral, bestial. When I hit the ground hard and found myself looking up into his twisted expression, panic clawed at my heart.

There was no strength left in me to move.

But just as Sorin raised his sword high above his head to deliver the killing blow, the air in front of me swirled and distorted, and formed itself into a shimmering cerulean curtain that parted as I watched.

Out from that curtain stepped a figure.

My vision blurred as I fought back unconsciousness, but even so, I could see that the figure was a young man. He wore a cloak of deepest blue and adorned with arcane white symbols, and the hood was lifted over his head so that I couldn't see his face. What I could see, however, were his gloved hands at his sides – and both of them were clenched into fists, reining in the glow of crackling blue energy that was now traveling all the way up his arms and down his back to bathe him in an ethereal light.

"Back off, Sorin," he growled. There was a threatening note in his voice that sent a chill down my spine, even as I realized that he was saving my life. "This isn't what we agreed on."

To my dazed surprise, Sorin straightened and laughed, letting the hand that was holding his sword fall slowly to his side. His laugh was hearty and deep, holding none of the primality of his expression mere moments before. "Well well, Jace – a man after my own heart!" He spread his arms wide and grinned, flashing those ever-so-sharp fangs of his. "Rescuing damsels in distress is a surefire way to bed a lady, but I do believe you've forgotten who's in charge here." When his gaze flicked down to me, lying prone and helpless against the corpse of one of the brood, and then back up to the newcomer – Jace, he had called him – his eyes gleamed. Dangerously.

Jace scoffed in derision, but said nothing. He crouched lower and widened his stance.

Realizing that the fight was about to begin and that I was also about to lose my chance, I at last found the strength to open my mouth and speak, though my words came out in barely more than a strained whisper. I sounded as pathetic as I had ever heard myself. "Are you here to help me, or is this another trick?" I tried to lift myself to a sitting position, but found that I couldn't even do that. "I don't know what to believe!"

Jace turned his head for just a moment and looked down at me. His face was indeed young, and rather handsome – in a more natural, normal way than Sorin's eerie beauty. Jagged white tattoos ran the length of it, from forehead to chin, and then further down along his throat to where they disappeared beneath the shadows of his cloak. The shock of dark brown hair that hung over his eyes – glowing with the same blue energy that sheathed him – waved back and forth as he shook his head. "You'll just have to trust me," he murmured. "I can't convince you now."

For whatever insane reason, I believed him.

Jace turned sharply back to face Sorin, though not quick enough to dodge a sudden slash aimed directly at his face. He gasped and drew back a little, his hand rising to the newly formed cut on his cheek that began welling blood. He clearly hadn't been anticipating the blow.

Sorin stood back and lifted his blade to his lips. Ever so slowly, he ran his tongue across the sharp edge, licking Jace's blood away before it could drip off and onto the ground.

"Blood is power," he breathed exultingly, when he noticed the other man's body stiffen at the sight. "You would do well to remember that, little mind-mage. So concerned with the thoughts of others that you neglect to notice what lies so close within your own reach…"

"Shut up!" Jace snarled. Even through the folds of his cloak, I could see the muscles of his back tighten. "I have no intention of letting myself become anything remotely close to scum like you."

Sorin shrugged. "And yet you work with me still. Are you so sure of your convictions, Jace?"

Jace's eyes narrowed, and the aura around him doubled in brightness. "You know as well as I that this is only a temporary deal. Once we've eliminated the Eldrazi, I'd be perfectly happy if you dropped dead. …Or at least, more so than you already are."

Sorin barked a short laugh, and with a _whoosh _he pointed the tip of his sword straight at the center of Jace's throat. "Very funny. I hope you know that the feeling is mutual." His own eyes narrowed, and the yellow glow that seemed to be emanating from his irises grew infinitely more sinister. I felt my breath catch in my throat when their gaze shifted slowly, and after a few agonizingly long moments, finally came to rest on me. They looked…hungry. "Just give me the girl, and I'll let you off easy this time."

"No," Jace said simply.

Sorin let out a long sigh, sounding as if he were holding the weight of the world on his shoulders already and Jace was only adding to it. "Well, when you're lying in your cozy bed back in Ravnica, bruised and bleeding from every orifice, don't complain to me that I didn't ask nicely."

With that, he thrust his palm forward and let loose with a blast of dark energy.

Jace reacted instantly, flicking his wrists to shake off a little bit of his own blue energy, and in a matter of milliseconds there was another him, standing right at his side, identical in both physical appearance and posture. The double leapt in front of Jace to take the attack for him, and as soon as the blackness crashed into its chest, it vanished into the aether with a soft hiss. Jace stood calmly behind it, unscathed.

Sorin didn't look amused by the trick, though, and with a growl he sank the blade of his longsword deep into his forearm. I felt my stomach turn as blood poured from the wound, thick and bright and red. _This can't be good._

And indeed it wasn't. With a guttural cry, Sorin grasped at the air in front of him and tugged, as if he were reeling in some invisible tether. Jace grunted and clutched at his arm, yanking up the fabric of his sleeve to see a wound identical to Sorin's beginning to form, ripping open like a seam and spilling blood all over his cloak. But before the spell could complete itself, before his skin could tear entirely, he held his hand over the growing wound and muttered a few words under his breath. There was a sharp _crack_, like a bolt of lightning, and his flesh knit itself together as if nothing had happened. I could feel the black mana of the spell dissipate.

_Wait_…

_I can sense mana again!_

Slowly, tentatively, I tried moving my arms and legs at once. They obeyed.

Hardly daring to hope, I reached out with my mind to try and grasp onto different sources of mana from places I knew, places I held dear.

It rushed into me, as easily as a moth flies to a flame. I nearly gasped at the sensation of being so suddenly filled.

Jace must have sensed what happened, because he froze in the middle of tracing a rune of blue energy in the air before him with his forefinger. Across from him, Sorin was doing the same with a black rune, murmuring something indistinguishable under his breath as he did so.

_**Are you strong enough to fight?**_

Now I was the one who froze, though to be fair, you couldn't exactly call my slight stirrings the exemplar of movement. I hadn't heard the words aloud, but in my thoughts, as if someone was circumventing my ears and speaking directly into my mind.

And at once, I recognized the sound of the voice.

_Jace?_

_**Yes.**_

_What…How can you speak to me like this?_

_**There's no time to explain. If you want to live, then help me.**_

_How? What do you want me to do?_

_**Cast something that can hurt him. I'll double it. It's all I have the mana left for.**_

The entire time that we had been having this mental conversation, Jace hadn't shown a single outward sign that it was going on. He was still tracing that intricate rune, still staring with admirable focus at the lines and curves of its form, and the way that the energy it was composed of flared brightly every few seconds or so.

I forced myself to focus now as well, though on something else entirely.

A familiar power swelled within me, and I could feel it threatening to explode outward from every pore of my body.

So I let it.

There was a great concussive blast that shook the earth beneath me with its force, and before I even had the time to look up and see the rift that I knew would be forming to suck in Sorin's longsword – the object to which I had necessarily attached my spell in order to target him without killing – there was another blast, identical in strength to the first.

Sorin was forced to his knees by the torrent of mana that emanated from the rifts and clawed at him, swallowing the longsword at his belt as well as the great creature he had just summoned. A distinctly feminine shriek echoed in the air, and I turned just in time to see that the creature in question was a tall, naked woman, with skin so pale as to almost be translucent, and an aura of purple swirling like mist about her. She writhed, snakelike, as she tried to free herself from the pull of my spell – but it was to no avail. Within moments she was gone, and the distortions in the air made by the twin rifts had vanished. Only Sorin was left, panting as he tried to catch his breath, his eyes seething with fury when he looked up at both Jace and I in turn.

But try as he might, he couldn't stand.

Jace, on the other hand, stood up straight, and fixed Sorin with an almost haughty glare. His blue aura faded, and I could feel the rush of its mana as it swept past me and back into the aether.

"You may be the most powerful, Sorin, but you don't rule with an iron fist. The lady gets to keep her blood _and _her will."

Upon mentioning me he turned, and with a rush of air as his cloak billowed about him, he dropped to his knees so that we were at eye level. Now that I could see him up close, and with the glow of blue mana gone from his eyes, I noticed that they were themselves a brilliant blue, nearly the exact same color as his cloak. _How ironic._

"I don't think I got your name," he said softly.

There was a pause in which I had to remind myself to breathe, now that the tension of the battle was over and I didn't have to keep myself from hyperventilating. "Ranewen," I said at last, sinking back against the brood corpse that had been propping me up all this while. My muscles slowly began to relax, and I could feel their ache as they did. "Ranewen of the Tajuru."

Jace nodded, and allowed himself a tired smile as he looked me directly in the eye. "Well then, Ranewen…My name is Jace Beleren, and the troublesome one behind me is Sorin Markov. But we'll have time for proper introductions later. I think we need to get you cleaned up first." His gaze fell to the bloody wounds on my throat and chest, and for a moment he hesitated. "But once that's done, if you would be so kind…I think the three of us have a few things to discuss. Wouldn't you say?"


	4. Chapter 4

Jace hefted a sigh as he drew back, having just mended the gash across my chest with his magic. He shook the remaining white mana from his hand, frowning, and after a few moments he at last turned his gaze down at me. "I'm sorry, Ranewen, but that's the best I can do for now. Healing magic isn't my specialty, so it takes a lot of strength to muster even a simple spell."

I shook my head, hoping that the little smile I flashed him would mitigate his apologetic look. "It's okay," I insisted. "I can take it from here. Besides, you already did enough to save my life." Having had time to regain my strength, I wrapped my arms around myself and called upon the mana of the plains of Murasa, holding an image of their swaying grasses in my mind as I felt the warmth of it seep into me bit by bit. My remaining wounds began to close as I channeled that mana into a healing spell – far more powerful than Jace's, but still nothing overtly special. When I felt the last cut knit itself together, I sighed and leaned back against the arm that he was using to hold me up. Seeing that I was at last alright, he used it to gently lower me to the ground, and then scooted back to give me breathing room. His face held an expression of relief that mirrored my own.

"I thought you were just a blue mage. I wasn't expecting you to know _any_ healing spells," I admitted, squinting into the beam of sunlight that had poked its way through the canopy high above our heads. Its warmth felt nearly as good as the white mana.

Jace finally smiled. "I didn't, until about a year ago. My friend Emmara is a healer, and she taught me… sort of. But that's not important right now. Do you think you can stand? Or do you need me to help you up?"

I laughed, embarrassed at how weak and raspy my voice still sounded. _What a great first impression. _"I don't think the whole 'staying standing' thing will be any trouble, but I'm not so sure about getting up there in the first place. I might need a hand."

"Then here." Jace slid one arm around my back, and held my wrist with the other. He lifted me enough so that my feet could find purchase, and then used his leverage to support me until I was standing fully straight. Once I had found my balance, he let go, and I smiled gratefully at him. He stepped away and smiled back.

"Already at it, Jace? What did I tell you? Playing the knight in shining armor is a surefire trick."

Jace snorted and turned to Sorin, who was leaning against a nearby tree and rubbing his temples. The vampire looked no worse for the wear from the previous battle, save for the fact that he was lacking one lovely silver longsword, and he didn't show it in his face either. Instead, he looked up and fixed Jace with a roguish grin. He made sure that his fangs were showing.

"Is that all you think about, lech?"

Sorin shrugged nonchalantly. "Few things in life are so interesting…or so pleasurable. Why not?"

Jace pressed his fingertips between his eyebrows and let out a long sigh. "Whatever. Just ignore him, Ranewen. He's always like this." When he looked back at me again, I saw that the apologetic expression had returned. "He's an arrogant ass of a parasite, but he's also the strongest planeswalker I know, save for one. And he's the _only_ one who knows how to seal the Eldrazi. So…we kind of _need _his help, like it or not."

I folded my arms over my chest and cocked an eyebrow at him. "_We_? What, so I'm a part of this now?" I winced immediately when the words came out biting, rather than lighthearted as I had intended. I wasn't angry, just curious.

Well, maybe alittle angry at Sorin. But Jace was being enough of a gentleman to make up for it.

The mage shrugged at my comment. "Well, that's what we wanted to talk to you about. It _is _a very important matter, and I'm sure you have plenty of questions anyway, so…"

When I saw from his expression that he was expecting a response, I nodded, making sure to keep my tone bright this time. "Of course. As long as I get answers in return to those questions," My gaze flicked to Sorin for an instant, "and as long as _he _doesn't lunge for my throat again, then I'm game."

Jace gave a little laugh. He had a rather handsome laugh, I noticed. Deep and rich. Textured. "Deal." He turned his head all around for a moment, taking in his surroundings, and after another moment, he turned again to me. "Now is there anyplace private around here that we can go, where we aren't completely surrounded by blood and corpses?"

"First order of business," Sorin said loudly as soon as we had settled in, "is that _you _owe me a new sword."

Jace chuckled. He finished rinsing the blood off his arm in the little spring coming out of the rock wall at our backs, then began to wipe himself dry with the hem of his cloak. The whole while, he didn't look up, but held an amused expression all the same. "Fair enough. I'll buy you one as soon as we get back to Ravnica. But for now, can we _please _get to the topic at hand?"

Sorin grunted his assent.

"Good." Finally finished with what he was doing, Jace let his cloak drop to settle around himself again and looked back up at me. His gaze was friendly. "Do you have any specific questions for us, before we start?"

"Yeah, I do, actually," I found myself saying. A laugh bubbled up in my throat as I pondered the suddenness and ridiculousness of the whole situation, and I just couldn't help myself. "Is it customary, to set upon new planeswalkers like this? Or is Sorin just especially battle-hungry today and I looked like an especially good target?"

Jace, clearly not expecting the question from the expression that passed across his face, let out a laugh of his own. Any joke at Sorin's expense, it seemed, was right up his alley. "Yes, unfortunately, though not in the way you had to experience it." His blue eyes glimmered. "You're the first walker we've actually been able to get ahold of, so we don't really have a tried-and-true recruitment plan. When we discussed things before, we just decided that we would pull people aside in the most effective way possible, and then have a rather convincing chat. Short and to the point." For a moment he pondered the bloodstains on the sleeve of his cloak. "You experienced far more fighting than you needed to today. Planeswalker sparks are always ignited through some sort of conflict, or more rarely some sort of profound spiritual experience – but for you, it looks like what you needed was a brush with death. You didn't need _another _brush with death on top of that, though, so I apologize for my companion's behavior."

Noting the sullen look on Sorin's face, I shrugged. "It's okay. No harm done, right? But if I could ask, before you say anything else…What _is_ a planeswalker spark, exactly?" I hated changing topics so abruptly, but I wanted to make sure I understood everything at hand before we moved any further.

Jace still didn't look up. He turned his arm over so that he could examine how bad the stains were on the underside, and paused for a moment before he spoke. "It's a sort of magical potential. Very few people have it, and even fewer people have the right sort of experience that can ignite it. But once it _is_ ignited, it gives you two things: the ability to survive the Blind Eternities and walk from plane to plane, and the potential to become immortal."

My jaw dropped, and I gaped openly at him. "Wait, _what_?"

Both Jace and Sorin chuckled at the shocked tone of my voice. "The _potential_, Ranewen. Don't get too excited yet." Jace finally stopped examining his cloak, and looked up to smile knowingly at me. "If you can find a way to become immortal, which could vary completely depending on the type of mana you use as well as what you're willing to do, and you succeed, then it will work. People without planeswalker sparks can do those things and extend their lifespans greatly, but never become truly immortal like us."

"What about you?" I whispered, feeling suddenly in awe.

Jace shrugged, and his smile turned a little mischievous. "I'm nearly 4,500 years old. What do you think?"

I could only stare.

Seeming to not want to waste any time, though, Jace jumped right back into his explanation. "Sorin, along with a few people who work for me back home, has been monitoring several planes for new walkers. We need every ally we can to fight this war, since the Eldrazi mean the end of all life. They have only recently been released, but they don't seem to be weakened any by their millennia of imprisonment. It's an incredibly serious threat."

"How were they released?" I asked, leaning in. This was the part that I was especially concerned about. I didn't much like the sound of these Eldrazi, much less the fact that they were roaming free around Zendikar. My home.

All of a sudden a curtain of fire leapt into life behind me with a loud _snap_, and I yelped. The curtain shimmered in the air like a heat wave, and when I turned quickly to face it, shielding my face with my hands from the incredible light and heat, I saw it begin to part as it was pushed to both sides from the center.

"I can answer that for you," said a woman's voice, as its owner stepped forth from the flames.

"_We_ unleashed them. By accident."

The newcomer, who was a rather pretty young woman about my age, put her hands on her hips and blew a lock of red hair out of her eyes, then tucked it snugly under the strap of her goggles when that failed. The fire she had just emerged from vanished back into the aether. "Someone lured us here under the promise of some great, secret power in the form of a scroll, and we were stupid enough to follow. Then they tricked us into breaking the seal on the Eldrazi. All in all, it was a pretty good day."

Jace brought his palm up to his forehead and groaned.

I looked back and forth between him and the woman, trying to read both of their expressions. Hers was one of very evident dislike as she glared down at Jace, and he, in turn, looked like he had just been kicked in the stomach. Clearly, he was trying to figure out a way to recover from her brutal honesty.

"Er, well…If it helps, I'm not judging anyone here," I piped up, though my voice did sound a little hesitant. Hopefully a little sarcasm might diffuse the tension. "You don't seem to be the type to unleash a world-eating monstrosity just for the fun of it, and hey, accidents happen, right?"

Jace lifted his head with a look of complete surprise, which quickly melted into relief. "Well, I'm…glad you believe her," he said, sighing slowly. "I thought for sure that would scare you off."

Smiling, I shook my head. "Nope. It'll take more than that."

Jace smiled right back, and I could see the gratitude in his eyes. "That's good to hear." He took a full minute to pause and collect his thoughts, glancing up to the woman when he did so and returning her look of dislike. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he must have decided that I was a far more agreeable conversation partner, because he almost instantly turned back to me. "As far as the scroll goes, we still don't know who planted it for us or why – All we know, and all that really matters at this point, is that we need to contain the Eldrazi."

His gaze softened. "We have enough death on our hands already."

Feeling my heart twist at the pain in his voice, I gave him the kindest smile I could manage. "I don't know what use I can be, but I promise that I'll do whatever I can. I mean it. Even if I have to leave my village. If it's for the greater good, then I-"

"Oh, you're an elf!"

Both Jace and I turned to look at the woman, who was inexplicably grinning down at me. The rust-colored tunic that poked out from beneath her armor fluttered around her like a skirt when she knelt, meeting my bemused gaze at eye level.

"Yes," I replied, not knowing what else to say. "See the ears?"

"Ranewen, this is another of my unsavory allies, Chandra Nalaar." Jace raised an eyebrow when she whipped her head around at the insult and glared daggers at him. He didn't seem fazed in the least. "She's a pyromancer, in case you couldn't tell by her entrance."

Chandra, having apparently just decided to ignore Jace, turned back to me and flashed a genuine smile. "It's nice to meet you, Ranewen. I was hoping we would get another girl in the group at some point." Her smile widened into a grin, and she tilted her head to the side. "I didn't expect another elf, though! Boy, this plane sure is picky."

My eyes widened. "_Another_ elf? From here? What's their name?"

"Nissa Revane," Jace answered. "She's from Bala Ged, I believe."

From behind Jace , Sorin snorted derisively and muttered something under his breath.

For a moment I racked my brain for any recollection of the name Nissa, but came up empty-handed. "No, I don't know the name. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize!" Chandra said, standing up straight and smoothing her tunic. It didn't do much, but she looked pleased anyway. "And as far as being useful goes, I can personally guarantee that won't be a problem. We can't even stand up to a single one of the Eldrazi in a fight, let alone all three! Last time, it took, what…" She paused for a moment, lifting a finger to her lips as she thought. "an immortal spirit dragon, Sorin, and some powerful rock mage to get them all locked up, and the seal was _still _broken."

"Wonderful," I muttered, feeling the first twinges of anxiety pull at my stomach.

Jace scowled at Chandra, then turned to face me with a calm smile. He laid a hand on my arm as he looked directly into my eyes, and I could see that he was trying as hard as he could to look reassuring. "Look," he said, his voice quiet, "we're not facing them today, and we're not doing it alone. All I'm asking you right now is to come back to Ravnica and have a drink with me. I promise, you can ask me anything you want then, and I won't pressure you into helping us if you truly feel like you can't handle it once all is said and done."

Chandra let out an odd little sound, between a giggle and a scoff. "_Very _smooth, Jace. Barely met the girl and you're already trying to woo her?"

I blushed almost reflexively, and fortunately Jace missed it by turning to her with an irritated expression. "Would you all stop that?" he snapped. "I'm sure you're making her feel _so _welcome."

Chandra shrugged, and looked down at me with a smug smile. _She_ definitely noticed my blush. _Great_. "You should tell her about your last one. I'm sure she'd be a welcome change from Li-"

"Chandra." Jace's voice had suddenly dropped an octave.

"What? All I was saying is that she-"

"_Chandra_." There was no mistaking the threat in his tone this time, and it was so strong that it took me by surprise. I could see as he glared at the pyromancer that his eyes were starting to glow blue, and they crackled with energy.

_Remind me not to get on his bad side_.

"Sheesh, alright, alright. Touch-y." Chandra threw her hands up and turned away from the both of us.

There was a moment of awkward silence before Jace finally sighed and looked back at me. His eyes had, thankfully, stopped glowing. "Well, no matter what she says, the offer still stands." He wasn't smiling anymore, and he suddenly sounded extremely tired. It made me wonder who this 'last one' was. What exactly had she done to make the mere mention of her name such a trigger?

"Of course," was all I could think to say.

"Back to Ravnica, then?" Chandra said from beside us, though she still didn't turn around. "I'll see you there, blue boy."

There was a sudden ripple of heat, and her hair lit up on fire like a torch. I blinked, startled, but before I had a chance to open my mouth and ask what was going on, another flaming curtain had formed in front of Chanda with a _snap_. Without another word, she stepped into it and vanished.

"I'm going too," Sorin grumbled suddenly. "I need a drink." He pushed himself to his feet and, not bothering to so much as look in our direction, pulled at the air with curved fingertips to rip open a distortion of his own. Its edges flowed, tumbled, and then flowed again, giving the impression of a semi-viscous liquid – something like blood, perhaps.

He, too, stepped into the distortion and vanished.

With the both of them gone, Jace sighed heavily and leaned back against the rock wall behind him. I wanted to say something to him, to cheer him up, but I had only known the man for a few hours at this point – I didn't know what I _could_ say. So instead I just smiled at him, hoping that it would do a least a little good. Or something at all.

A minute passed, and still Jace didn't speak. I decided to just give it a shot. "So, uh…she's certainly something."

Jace snorted. "No kidding. I've spent the past year and a half chasing her around, trying to get back that damn scroll she stole. I've done plenty of insane things – joining and then taking over a multiplanar corporation; chasing its previous owner, who's sworn revenge against me, across the Blind Eternities and back; getting myself caught by a sadistic elder dragon – but none of them have frustrated me as much as she has. And then at the end of the whole chase, I found myself here. In Zendikar. At the Eye of Ugin. At the lock that I didn't know existed, yet still somehow managed to open."

"You mean the lock on the Eldrazi?" I asked, resting my chin in my hands and my hands on my knees. If Jace needed to get this rant out, then by all means, I was going to let him.

He nodded. "A mad planeswalker had been there waiting for us, and he attacked us both in the Eye. Chandra used this invisible fire, which turned out to be a spell that replicated the breath of the spirit dragon, Ugin – one of the three who made the eye and sealed the Eldrazi in the first place – and that spell, along with the presence of three planeswalker sparks, triggered the release of the seal. And there you have it." He sighed again, deeply. "She saved our lives only to endanger the entire multiverse."

I shook my head sympathetically. "That sounds like quite a mess. I'm sorry you had to be a part of it."

"So am I," he murmured.

There was another long pause, and then I finally decide to break the silence again. I cleared my throat delicately and put my hand on Jace's arm for just a moment, until he looked up at me. "Well, as you said, I'm sure we can discuss things in more detail over a drink." Smiling wryly, I pulled my hand away and tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear. "I'm sure we could both use one, after today."

"Yeah," he admitted, his breath coming out in a soft laugh. "That we could. Though to get there, you're going to have to planeswalk."

At the mention of that word I froze, my heart skipping a beat. Whether it was in nervousness or excitement, I couldn't tell. "How do I do that?"

"It's…kind of hard to describe," he said slowly. His brow furrowed in thought. "You need to find something you draw your power from and commune with it. It takes a lot of mana, so having a deep connection is always good. Then you think of where you want to go, and just…walk. After the connection, everything else is instinctive."

I took a deep breath and forced myself to smile. "Well…alright. I guess I have no other choice but to try." Rising to my feet, I stretched my arms behind my back, and let out a little groan when I felt my spine pop. _That _felt good. "Where are we going, though? I don't want to end up in the middle of an ocean on accident."

"What magic comes most easily to you?"

I answered without even thinking, though he hadn't answered my own question. "Anything that concerns trees and plants. Sometimes I can even speak to them without using magic, though it's easier when I do."

Jace cocked an interested eyebrow. "Hmm. An arboromancer. Rare to see those outside Lorwyn."

"Another plane?" I asked.

He smiled again at last, though it was a small one. "Perhaps you'll see for yourself soon enough. But for now, come with me."

I followed closed behind as he walked over to the nearest jaddi-tree and placed his hand on its smooth, silvery-brown bark. Where he touched, the tree seemed to distort, though by now I knew that it was the aether distorting, and not the tree itself. I had guessed as much about the physics of this from watching all three of my new acquaintances walk previously.

"I'm a mind-mage, so I draw my power from within. I don't need to commune with anything in the outside world to walk. But you do, so what I'm going to do is create a portal to the Blind Eternities right in front of this tree, which will allow you to draw green mana from it more easily than you normally can. You don't ordinarily need to do something like this, but since it's your first walk, I want to take a few extra precautions."

I nodded. Just then, I remembered what Sorin had said about my spark igniting, how I had walked to a plane of green mana without even knowing I had done it.

"Just follow me through the portal, alright? When planeswalkers enter the Blind Eternities, we leave an aether trail, which differs in appearance depending on the person. Apparently mine is a bright blue mist, so I'm sure you won't be able to miss it."

I nodded again, unable to tear my gaze away from the swirling distortion. _Am I really prepared for this?_

"Here," Jace said, his voice suddenly gentle. When I looked up at him in surprise, he took my hand in his and held it tight. "This will make it easier."

This time, I was sure he saw my blush.

"Now focus."

I did, with all the strength I had in me. I forced the feeling of his hand and my own embarrassment out of my mind, and directed my thoughts as hard as I could toward the tree in front of me, thinking of nothing but its bark, its branches that reached high up into the darkening sky, its leaves that wavered in the slight breeze, its roots that reached deep down into the earth and fought for dominance against the never-ceasing Roil.

The mana came to me not in a steady flow as I was used to, but in a flood. I could scarely breathe as the sensation overwhelmed me.

"Are you ready?" I could hear Jace's voice next to me, faint against the roaring tide.

My head spun. I nodded a third time.

And without further pretense, he stepped forward through the portal and pulled us both into the Blind Eternities.


	5. Chapter 5

As soon as I stepped through the portal, everything changed.

The world around me fell away – save for Jace, whom I clung to like a lifeline – and it was replaced by an incomprehensible chaos.

A sound that wasn't sound roared, deafening, in my ears, almost in sync with the raw mana that clawed at me with a strength that I thought might rip my flesh from my bones. I could feel every color of it flowing through my body at once whenever it touched me, though I knew that I would never be able to harness even an ounce of it. Doing so would kill me instantly, I was sure.

With every surge of mana, I saw formless masses of light dance before my unseeing eyes – bolts of red, wisps of blue, halos of white. The sensation was dizzying, and became even more so when I realized that there was no solid ground beneath my feet, or solid _anything_ besides myself and Jace.

Besides us, there was nothing but an endless blackness.

As we walked forward – if you could even call it walking – I lost track of how many seconds had passed. We could have been within that place for minutes, hours…maybe even days. Within it, I lost my sense for judging time. It was strange and frightening, and I found myself clinging to Jace's hand as if it held the answers to everything that had ever existed. He didn't stop or look back at me, but after a time I felt a gentle, almost reassuring squeeze in return.

And then, after even more time, we arrived.

I could feel the pull of unfamiliar mana from someplace a little ahead of us, but it felt distant, faint – as if it were hidden within a thick fog. The difference between that mana and the mana that buffeted me even now, threatening to knock me from my feet, was that the mana ahead felt tangible. Real. It felt like something I could channel and control.

As I watched, Jace took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and gazed into the blackness.

The aether parted before us almost instantaneously, and he pulled us forward into the hole.

It took me a moment before I realized that we were no longer in the Blind Eternities, but that instead we were standing in the middle of a dirty, crowded tavern. Every single patron in the place – and the vast majority of them looked like unfriendly thugs – was staring at us, silent as death. I stiffened under the weight of their gazes. A cold shiver of dread crawled its way up my spine. _Great – Way to pick a good place for us to end up, Jace. _

But when I turned to him, I was surprised to see that he didn't look concerned in the least. In fact, he nodded calmly to a few of the tables, and as soon as he did, quiet chatter resumed and _everyone _went back to their own business. It was like it had been some sort of predetermined signal.

My jaw went slack in amazement.

"You can relax, Ranewen," he said, releasing my hand and stepping off to the side of the room, out of the aisle of chairs. "I own this place. It's a front for that multiplanar corporation I was talking about – the Infinite Consortium. The back room is members only, though you don't need to fear any of these fine gentlemen here. They're what I like to call the frontline of my security." I stepped over next to him, and he leaned close so that he was speaking directly into my ear. "If they fail, then there's always the magic defense system my employees and I established. But I'm confident in their skills, so I don't think that will even be an issue."

"Well, that's certainly a relief to hear," I whispered back. "I was starting to think that we were in for a fight."

He chuckled a little, and nodded to the left with his chin. "If we were, I can guarantee you that it would be a quick one."

When I turned, I saw two familiar faces at the bar – Sorin seated, sipping a glass of red wine, and Chandra leaning against the worn wooden planks toward the bartender to order another drink. I wondered why I had missed them before, but then decided that it was because I had been too distracted by thoughts of an imminent beating. As I looked, Jace walked over to each of them in turn and tapped them lightly on the shoulder. When they turned and saw him, and then me, they stood and walked toward a door at the back of the room. Jace then turned and nodded in my direction, and I scurried through the mess of chairs to follow.

"Planning to show the lady your _private_ selection, eh Jace?" Sorin sneered. He took a long moment to let his gaze rove over me, looking significantly happier than when I had last seen him. I assumed it had something to do with the drink he was still holding. It certainly _looked_ enough like wine, but the way it smelled even from here, tangy and metallic…I stepped back a foot.

Jace ignored him. "This door is enchanted so that whenever I, or someone I've enchanted it to react to, steps through it, they'll end up in our headquarters at the edge of the Rubblefield. It'll just take me a second to modify that enchantment so you can pass through, so hold on …" He closed his eyes and pressed his hand to the doorknob, and blue energy began swirling around his fingertips.

"I hope this isn't a secret plan you three have contrived to test my strength with another battle," I said, laughing weakly. With the way Sorin had looked at me, though, I was only half kidding. "I'm not sure I can handle one more of those just yet."

A moment later Jace finished his work, and he drew back and straightened. The blue glow around him disappeared. "Hey, _I _wasn't the one who attacked you, if you remember correctly." He let out a quiet laugh, and when he turned to me, he stopped to shoot an accusatory look at Sorin. "You'd be a bloodsucker right now if not for my help."

The vampire simply shrugged.

I smiled teasingly at Jace, hoping that I could coax more than just that little laugh out of him. For whatever reason, I felt personally responsible for bringing him out of the funk that Chandra's mention of his ex – or whoever it was – had sunk him into. "Which I am, of course, very grateful for. I'm not sure I would like the taste of blood."

Jace's return smile was hesitant. He didn't say anything more, though – just turned, opened the door, and walked through, beckoning with a hand for me to follow. Chandra went first, then Sorin. When it was my turn to cross the threshold, I felt a tiny tingling sensation run along my shoulders and arms to my fingertips, and the air around me buzzed. It was…odd, to say the least.

_Though not nearly as odd as being in the Blind Eternities_.

Once I was through the doorway, the tingling and buzzing stopped, and I found myself at the foot of a large spiral staircase. There was only one way to go – up – and so I went, following the sound of boots on wood as my companions walked ahead of me.

When I reached the top, I gasped aloud at what I saw.

I had been to the human settlements on Zendikar once or twice before, but I had never seen anything there as fine as this place.

The room we were in had a high, slanted ceiling topped with crossbeams, and on every side of us where walls should have been, there were only windows that stretched from floor to ceiling. Outside of those windows loomed spires taller than any tree I had ever seen, and of every color – though the vast field that stretched out before the buildings was mostly filled with crumbling grey, white, and black stone, save for the occasional squat shed to one side or another. When I tore my gaze from the vista and back to the room around me, I noticed the polished wood floors leading to another spiral staircase in the back. Atop those floors stood many chairs and tables and couches, their metal frames twisting into artistic designs that I had a sudden itch to examine more closely. To one side stood a large marble countertop, behind which were shelves upon shelves of what appeared to be liquor bottles. A beautiful golem, made entirely out of translucent crystal, stood in the bartender's place behind the counter, polishing an ornate wine glass with a rag.

Jace and Chandra immediately went over to the bar and placed their orders – Jace hadn't yet gotten anything, after all, and Chandra had been interrupted mid-order before – and then came back to sit on a few of the couches that were arranged in a circle. Jace held a glass of what looked like expensive, sparkling burgundy wine, and Chandra immediately started drinking from a heavy mug of…something. I could smell its pungent odor, even from here. Sorin, for his part, remained standing the entire time.

Not knowing what to do, I took a few steps toward the couches and remained standing as well.

"It's beautiful," I murmured appreciatively after a minute. "I've never seen anything like this."

Jace noticed my awe as I returned to staring out the windows, and he smiled. "Welcome to Ravnica, the city of guilds, and my home for the moment." He paused to take a sip from his glass, and then gestured with a wave of his hand toward the bar. "If you're going to get anything, I would suggest the Selesnya white. Very good."

I looked back and forth from him to the bartender for a moment, and then let out a tiny embarrassed laugh. "I'm afraid to say that I haven't had a drink in a long time, much less a proper one." My arms came up to fold over my chest. "My tribe had to make do with whatever we had. Wine was saved only for special occasions, like births and weddings."

"It's true," Sorin chimed in suddenly as he paced past to walk behind Jace's couch. "No place to grow or ferment good wine. Probably why the vampires there are so brutish."

Jace's brow raised briefly. "Well, at least you can tell who the vampires are here. Moroii don't look even vaguely human."

"I suppose I should call myself fortunate to have never seen one before," I said, glancing at Sorin with a small smile. "If they all employ the same tactics as you, then they might just have worn me down after awhile."

Sorin scoffed. "Who, the Moroii?"

"No, I meant the-"

"Those brutes just chase you down on the wing and drain the youth out of you with a touch! I'm insulted that anyone would lump my kind together with them."

I sighed, realizing that Sorin probably wouldn't buy it if I tried to correct his error. _Guess I just have to roll with it. _"Well then, forgive me for my presumption."

Chandra paused from her enthusiastic drinking for a moment to let out a snort and roll her eyes at Sorin. Pointedly. "Yeah, because seducing young, drunk women and then bleeding them as soon as you finish is _so _much more refined."

He just gave a leisurely shrug, his lips curled into a smile.

"I must admit, Sorin," I said slowly, allowing myself a laugh that came out more nervous than I had anticipated, "you do scare me…just a little. So I'm going to try to avoid drawing your ire from here on out. Let me know when I'm starting to head down that path, alright?"

Chandra, clearly missing the note of sarcasm in my voice – or only hearing my nervous laughter – set her drink down and shot to her feet, her hair bursting into flame just like it had done before she planeswalked. She rushed over to me, seized me by the shoulders, and hauled me over to sit down next to her on the couch. "Don't be so timid, girl!" she exclaimed. She picked up her mug of brew and set it down firmly in my lap, though the heat from her fire as she passed it to me caught it ablaze. She didn't seem to notice, though. "He'll just push you around. Here, drink, relax. I'm not going to let him eat you." She grinned, and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially in my ear. "Besides, he's not that scary. Just ask Jace about his last girlfriend – Now _she_ was creepy."

Across from us, Jace's grip tightened noticeably on his wine glass.

Hurrying to change the subject before he could get a chance to brood any longer, I looked down at the flaming drink between my knees, and then back up at Chandra. "Er…Maybe _you_ can, Chandra, but I'm not so sure I can drink fire." At this, I couldn't help but let out a little giggle.

"Oh!" For the first time, she seemed to notice the roaring blaze that was threatening to ignite my leggings, and reached out a hand to cover the mug and smother the flames within. When they died, she combed her fingers through her hair to quench those flames as well. "Sorry." She laughed. "I do that when I'm excited sometimes. Or angry."

"She means that she has no control over her power whatsoever," Jace said with a smirk.

Chandra's hair roared to life again. "Watch your tongue, Jace, before I burn it out!" I winced and drew back from her a little bit when flames began to shoot from her fingertips.

He just chuckled and took another sip of wine.

Desperate to diffuse the growing tension, I picked up the mug Chandra had given me and swirled the thick, brownish liquid inside, trying not to cringe as its acrid smell burned my nostrils. "I may as well get acquainted with the different types of drinks here, if I'm going to be staying awhile." It took everything I had not to choke on my own words. "What do you call this?"

Jace cocked an eyebrow, and a faint smile turned up the corners of his lips. "_That _is a Golgari whiskey. Very potent."

My heart lifted at the smile, and I flashed him one back. "Meaning that this might not be the best choice for my first real drink?"

Chandra scoffed and clapped a hand on my shoulder. She had doused her hair again, thankfully. "Nonsense! Be a woman!"

For a moment I seriously contemplated whether or not my urge to make the polite choice would kill me. Finally, though, I sighed, and took a long look down at the whiskey. "Well, I don't want to be ungracious, so…cheers." Bracing myself for whatever might happen, I lifted the mug to my lips and took a large swallow.

As soon as I did, however, I fell into a fit of coughing, and had to set the drink down on the end table next to me. I hadn't braced well enough, apparently. _Spirits, that's the worst thing I've ever tasted!_

Jace, Chandra, and Sorin all laughed at once.

When my coughing had subsided and my eyes had stopped watering, I took a deep breath and leaned into the cushions at my back. "That was…mmm." My voice came out rather hoarse. "Let's just say that didn't win a place on my list of favorites."

Jace smiled, his blue eyes glittering in amusement. It was enough to make me forget about the awful burning sensation in my throat. "Well, we do have a wide selection. Next time, just ask the golem – He knows the history of every vineyard and brewery in the city, and all the alcohol they produce. It's why I hired him, after all."

I coughed again, though it didn't stop my face from breaking out into a grin. "I'll have to do that, as soon as I've recovered." For a moment I paused, and looked all around at my three companions. A thought had just occurred to me, and I knew that it would nag at the corners of my mind until I put it to voice. "I have a question first, though, if I may."

Jace nodded as he took a drink, and Chandra leaned forward and clasped her hands over her knees. Sorin continued pacing back and forth, but his gaze had moved from the window to me. I took all of their actions as a cue to continue.

"This is all really sudden, as I'm sure you're aware. One moment I was out hunting baloths, and the next I'm being swept away to this wondrous little place and being told that I'm going to be a great help in this war, against these creatures I've never seen, let alone heard of." Hearing the note of uncertainty in my voice, everything that had happened over the past couple of hours suddenly came back to me in a rush. It felt like a stone tied to my feet, pulling me down into the murky depths of an emotion I couldn't quite describe, let alone comprehend. "Despite the insanity of all this, I believe you. Don't ask me why, but I do. I just…" I shook my head, slowly. "I'm baffled. I'm sure there are plenty of other planeswalkers out there, ones who are far more experienced and talented than I am. Even if you _are_ convinced that I'll be able to hold my own in a battle, I'm sure it's going to take awhile for me to train myself up. So what I'm wondering is – Why me?"

There was a stretch of silence in which everyone could do nothing but stare into their drinks, and the longer it continued, the uneasier I felt. Finally, though, Sorin walked up behind me and leaned against the top of the couch, his arms draped over it to either side. His face came up close to mine as he bent forward.

"Because, m'lady, we found you." His voice was casual, as if he were speaking of something as mundane as the weather. I shivered a little when I felt his breath on my cheek, and wondered whether or not he was trying the same trick that had sucked me in before. "It is as I said – I was maintaining a spell on Zendikar that would detect if any creature with a drop of blood became a planeswalker. And _you_ did, so there we have it."

Jace frowned a little at Sorin, but when he spoke his tone didn't show any emotion. "Like _I _said, we planeswalkers are born in struggle. An event like the Eldrazi awakening is more likely to ignite a spark, which is what I'm guessing happened to you."

Sorin suddenly turned to Jace and glared. "I _know _you did. You ask to see if I was telling the truth?"

Puzzled, I blinked and looked back and forth between the two of them. "Um…what?"

Jace shifted his gaze to me and suddenly noticed my confusion. "Oh, sorry. I was just talking to him telepathically."

"Sorry if it makes you uncomfortable," Sorin added, giving me a smile that was, for the first time since I had met him, free of lecherous undertones.

"Ah. No, I'm not uncomfortable. It may make me a fool, but I trust you both." Though I did wonder what it had been that they were hesitant to say aloud.

Beside me, Chandra shrugged. "Not much of a choice for us ladies out here. Either we fight with the boys, or we wait for the Eldrazi to kill us all."

"And I'm not too fond of the second option." I muttered glumly. I wished that I had a glass of something to glower down at, because my mood had swiftly taken a turn for the worse.

"Awww, Ranewen, don't let your pretty little ears droop!" Chandra must have picked up on my mood, because now she was leaning over to drape an arm around my shoulder, and she fixed me with a kind smile. "We have time. It will take them decades to erode Zendikar."

The thought of it being eroded at _all_ made my stomach churn, but I didn't want Chandra's efforts to cheer me up to go to waste. "I certainly hope so. My home means a lot to me, and I would do anything to protect it."

Suddenly, I remembered something and sat up straight. "Oh!"

Turning to all three of my companions, I smiled apologetically. "Where are my manners? I forgot to thank you for rescuing me…well, in a way. I'm not sure I would have lasted long out there if you hadn't found me."

Despite my efforts, I could feel my cheeks heat up a bit when my gaze fell on Jace. "Especially you, Jace. That was quite the well-timed entrance."

He shrugged. To my disappointment, his expression was unreadable. "Chandra would have been there and done the same had she not taken so long to follow my aether trail. We both know how Sorin gets."

I turned to the vampire, and when I suddenly realized how close he was to my neck, I scooted closer to Chandra. My lips twisted into a scowl. "Flirtatious to innocent women?"

"More like dangerous," Chandra muttered.

I chuckled softly when Sorin made a show of rolling his eyes. "Well, I know that by _now_. I'm not going to be falling for any of your tricks again, though, mark my words."

"Consider them marked," he said pleasantly. That oddly normal smile was still there.

I chuckled again and shook my head. "Well, anyway…" I folded my hands in my lap and turned back to Jace, who was still sitting calmly and sipping his wine. "Is there anything else you need me to know, so I'm ready to play whatever part you want me to play in all this? I don't want to go in unarmed, after all."

Sorin, however, was the one to speak. He strolled around in front of the couch and finally sat down in a large armchair next to Jace, then sunk deeply into it and sighed. He draped his arms luxuriantly over the upholstered sides. "My plan is to replace the team from all those years ago. I need someone capable of casting Ugin's flames, someone with power over spirits, and a stone mage that can create a new central hedron. So far, I only have one of those."

Chandra waved at me cheerily.

When he didn't say anything else, I paused for a moment to think, rubbing my thumb over my chin. "Well, I can commune with _some_ spirits – anything that's tied to nature, like trees." I smiled hopefully and looked up at Sorin. "You think something like that would help?"

Jace was the one to answer me, though. "Maybe, maybe not. But a fresh mind wouldn't hurt either way, especially since the problem of finding people – much less planeswalkers – with the exact powers we need is…difficult to solve." His eyes met mine briefly, and I could see in their depths that he was pondering something . "Any ideas you might have would be appreciated."

I smiled and nodded, then a second later brightened when a sudden idea did, in fact, come to me. "Could I learn how to extend my powers to spirits beyond those in nature, you think?" I was almost surprised at how eager my voice sounded. "I know it would probably take a great deal of time and effort, but still, I'd be willing to give it a try!"

Chanda leaned forward, grinning. "She's right, you know. Just because we all have our specialties doesn't mean we can't try to branch out! I could play around with stone for a bit, see what happens…"

Jace snorted. "Like you would be able to keep that up for long."

She scowled at him darkly, and I leaned away when her fingertips began to glow again. "Doesn't mean I wouldn't _try_."

Sensing a heated argument on the horizon if they were left to continue, I jumped off the couch and stood in the center of the circle, spreading my arms wide. "Right, so I can try!" I gazed around the room at Jace, Chandra, and Sorin in turn, and tried as best I could to look serious. "That is, if you'll have me. If you wish to keep searching for someone more skilled, though, then be my guest. I understand. I just…want to be of as much aid as I can, that's all."

Chandra laughed and patted the cushion next to her, waving me with her other hand back over to the couch. "Sit down, Ranewen – You're not our servant!" She smiled at me almost fondly. "We're all in this together, remember?"

I appreciated her words, but now that I had the floor, I wasn't about to give it up. "No, I mean it. I will _not_ see my home destroyed and my people slaughtered while I am still able to protect them, Chandra." I shook my head vehemently. "This isn't just about feeling compelled to return the favor to you three, you know. I have my own reasons for wanting to fight."

Chandra's gaze softened, and she tilted her head as she regarded me. "There you go, see? _This _is why we're not going to get rid of you." She was still smiling, but I noticed a warmth in it that hadn't been there before. "You've got not just motivation, but spirit too. You'll do just fine."

I was taken aback at the compliment, and could feel myself beginning to blush. "Well, um…thank you." My voice was shy, as was the little smile that I couldn't hold back. "I certainly hope I do. After all, I…want to live long enough to try other drinks than just that foul concoction you pushed on me. I won't go to my deathbed with only that under my belt!"

Chandra laughed heartily, sounding more cheerful than I had heard her yet. "Well, let's see if you survive my scathing tomorrow, then!" She picked the mug up off the table where I had placed it and, to my disbelief, downed the remainder of it in one large gulp as she stood. Once she was done, she sighed and wiped her lips with the back of her hand. "I'm tired, though, so I'm heading up to bed. 'Night, all!" Before anyone had the chance to respond, she turned and darted up the wooden stairs with her tunic trailing behind her.

I shook my head once she was gone, chuckling under my breath. "I have _no _idea how she does that. Does her fire magic burn away all the taste?"

Sorin stood and stretched his arms high above his head, When he strolled past me toward the staircase leading down, cracking his knuckles as he went, his shoulder brushed mine. He didn't even seem to notice the touch. "All things are appreciated by the connoisseur, Ranewen. Speaking of which, though…I should go. Night falls." As I watched, his body just _vanished_, and in its place a thick black mist hung in the air. Before I could blink, the mist was gone, and I was left standing in the middle of all the couches with a confused stare.

After a moment, I shook my head again. "And here I thought vampires were nocturnal."

"They are," Jace said from his couch. "He's not going to sleep, he's going to _hunt_."

I could almost feel the realization dawn across my face. "Ah, that's…interesting. Good to know."

After another moment I decided to go sit down, and it took more than a little bit of courage to force myself to pick a seat on the couch next to Jace. When I did, I gently poked the wine glass still in his hand with a fingertip. It was nearly empty by now. "What's this called? It looks like something that might be more suited to my tastes."

"I hope it's not blood," I added quickly after a second. "I've had one too many vampire surprises for one day."

Jace shook his head with a small smile. "No, it's not, don't worry." He took another sip before continuing, then looked in the glass to see how much was left. Barely enough for a full swallow. "I normally drink irimberry wine, but I wanted something a little bit stronger after today. This particular brand is a sparkling liquor imported from Bant, which is a plane that used to be ruled by angels but now lies in ruin."

My gaze softened. I hadn't been expecting that little bit of exposition. "That's sad."

Jace shrugged, not taking his own gaze off the glass. "Unfortunately, the maelstrom wasn't kind to Bant. But that's just how things are."

There was a long pause. After what Jace has just said, I found myself unable to stop thinking about Zendikar, and whether or not I would be back to see my home anytime soon. I had pledged my word to these people to help them in their fight against the Eldrazi, which was all well and good, but I hadn't even gotten a chance to say goodbye to the people I loved – my friends, my shaman mentor, my cousins…not even my mother or father. Would they be worried when I didn't come back to the village tonight? Would they come looking for me? If they did, they would never find me.

Or worse, they would think that I had been killed by the brood lineage.

My stomach felt suddenly sick, and with a shaky gasp my head fell into my hands.

When Jace noticed, he set his glass down and turned his entire body to face me. "Ranewen, what's wrong?"

I shook my head, feeling my nose rub up against my palm. "I'm worried for my home," I murmured. My voice came out muffled through my hand, though, and I doubted he was able to understand it. "Between fighting the brood lineage earlier and hearing all of your stories about the Eldrazi…It's really hard not to be afraid. I've spent my entire life among my tribe, and I care about them all deeply, so the thought of losing anyone, even just one person…"

To my surprise, I felt an arm slide around my shoulders, and when I looked up I saw Jace smiling down at me, gently. "Look around you, Ranewen. Despite the dangers, you see life here, don't you?"

I looked all around the room and then, when I didn't see anything except the furniture and the golem, I followed his gaze out the window. Despite the fact that the field surrounding the compound was in complete ruin, people – so tiny from here as to look like ants – still strolled back and forth across roughly hewn paths, going about their daily business.

"You're right," I said slowly. "But I'm not quite sure what you're getting at."

"Would you guess that there was a war here just three years ago?"

My eyes widened. "Really?" For a moment I looked out the window again, at the towering buildings beyond the Rubblefield that stretched from one horizon to the other. "But that can't be. The city looks so vibrant."

"It's true," he said. "The guilds were fighting amongst themselves, and a full-scale war erupted when they were finally dissolved. It was chaos.

"But now, life returns."

There was a pause, and then at last I allowed myself a smile. Before I knew what I was doing, I leaned into Jace's arm that still held me, and breathed out in a deep sigh. "I suppose you're right. Being so pessimistic isn't doing anyone any favors, huh?"

He nodded, and his smile broadened into a grin. "Exactly."

For a moment we sat there, just like that, and then at last Jace yawned and stood, pulling away from me slowly. "I think I'm going to retire for the night." He pointed to the staircase leading up, where Chandra had gone. "There's a guest room up the stairs and to the left that you can use. If you want to clean off all that blood, there's a bathroom with running water a few doors down from the guest room. No one uses it, so you won't have to worry about being bothered."

When I looked down at myself and finally noticed how disgusting my clothes were, caked in mud and dried blood from nearly head to toe, I laughed. "Yeah, that would probably be a good idea." I reached up to run my fingers through my hair, and found that it was hardened and stuck together with the same substances. _I must look lovely. _"I've only heard of a few places on Zendikar with running water, though, so this should be an interesting experience."

Jace chuckled. "Glad I can be the provider for you."

When he started to head toward the stairs, I had a sudden moment of clarity and reached forward to catch his arm. "Hey, Jace?"

He turned at my touch. "Hm?"

I smiled, feeling a warmth spread through me from where my fingers touched his cloak. "Thank you again for all your help earlier. I owe you my life, you know." I couldn't hold back the sarcastic little quip that had just come to mind, so I let it out and laughed. "Becoming a vampire has never been a life goal of mine."

Jace smiled too, and gazed at me with the same unreadable expression from before. "You're welcome. I couldn't do anything else." There was a pause, and then he shrugged. "And as far as vampires go, we _do _need allies…even parasites like Sorin. They have their uses and their places in the world, just like us."

"True enough," I agreed.

There was a brief silence, broken after a moment by another yawn from Jace. "Well," he said softly, "I should go. I have business to attend to in the morning."

I nodded, and walked with him to the foot of the stairs. He continued to walk up, his hand ghosting over the metal railing, but I stopped after a few steps and just looked up at him. For whatever strange reason, I was unable to follow him so close behind. "See you then, I guess?"

He turned to glance over his shoulder for just a moment, and the look in his blue eyes when he did made something tighten in my chest, though I didn't quite know why.

"Of course, Ranewen."


	6. Chapter 6

"Wakey wakey, sleepyhead!"

I groaned and pulled my pillow over my head. It was _far _too early for anyone to be sounding that cheerful.

But whoever it was, they weren't about to let up.

"C'mon Ranewen, it's time for our battle! If _I_ could roll out of bed, then so can you!"

Finally coming to enough to recognize the voice as Chandra's, I suddenly sat up with a start. _Wait. That's not right._

_Where am I?_

I blinked at the assault of light against my unprepared eyes when I looked, bleary and bewildered, around the room. The plush bed I was sitting on and the soft sheets I was tangled in weren't mine, and the wood panels covering the walls across from me were wholly unfamiliar. _This isn't my room! This is-_

_Oh. _

At once the fog cleared, and I remembered everything that had happened yesterday. The baloth hunting, the assault by the brood lineage, meeting and fighting Sorin, meeting Jace and Chandra, planeswalking…

Planeswalking.

_I'm a __**planeswalker**__._

I marveled at the realization anew, and shook my head as my gaze fell on Chandra. She was standing in the doorway, clad in the full set of skin-tight metal armor that she had been wearing yesterday, though this time she wore greaves that reached all the way up her thigh-high boots and had a crimson tunic poking out from beneath her breastplate rather than the rust one. She was staring right back at me with a concerned expression.

"Feeling okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." I wasn't exactly _fine_, per se, but I was as good as I was going to get. What Chandra didn't know wouldn't hurt her. "I'm just a little dizzy."

She smiled and plopped down on the bed next to me with a _clank_, and for the first time I noticed that she was holding a glass of water. When she saw my gaze, she held it out to me. "Here, I brought this for you." I took the glass, looking a little confused, but that only made her smile widen. "I figured you wouldn't know where Jace keeps the glassware. He hasn't told me yet either, but I haven't had much better to do lately than poke around."

I laughed, though it came out more like a cough. "Why am I not surprised?"

Chandra shrugged and continued smiling. "Because he and I hate each other with a burning passion, maybe?"

"Literally." I chuckled faintly, and then lifted the glass to take a sip. The cool water soothed my dry throat, and in a couple more seconds I had downed the rest of it in a few long drinks, not caring if it would make my stomach feel sick. When I was finished, I set it down on the little bedside table. "What's with you two, anyway?"

Chandra snorted derisively, and I could see the gleam that entered her auburn-flecked eyes. "Besides the fact that he nearly killed me trying to get the scroll back, and then succeeded in mind-wiping me? I hate his brand of magic. _Hate _it. Mind-mages just piss me off. Thoughts are supposed to be private, _always_, so why the hell should he be able to mess around with them however he likes? It's disgusting!" Her hair had begun to hover about her like a red halo, and it looked dangerously close to bursting into flame. I scooted backward on the bed.

"Well, you don't seem to hate him enough to want to burn him into ashes, so that's something!" I was hoping against hope that if I said something cheerful, it might cool her fury. …Or it might not. "If you did, then I'm sure you would have done it already."

To my surprise, though, her hair fell back onto her shoulders, and her expression softened ever so slightly. "Yeah…" She let out a sigh, blowing a lock of those bright tresses away from her cheek where it had fallen. "As much as I hate to admit it, it's a lot easier to work with him when I'm not thinking about the most creative way to spill his guts. And I do _have _to work with him now, so…" She shrugged. "I guess fighting a crazy planeswalker-turned-dragon _is _a pretty good bonding experience, too. I can't deny that."

I smiled and nudged her shoulder with mine. With the water in my system, I felt much more awake – and, strangely, in a much better mood. "Hey, you said something about a fight when you came in, didn't you?"

Chandra's eyes lit up like a child's at solstice feast. "Oh, yeah! That's right! Thanks for reminding me!" She turned to me with an excited grin, and seized me by the shoulders more firmly than I had expected. "Blue boy managed to get an arena for us to practice in, and I haven't gotten to burn something in weeks. Please, _please_, Rana – Will you let me battle you, just this once?"

Rana. I hadn't heard that nickname in awhile. "But aren't you hungover at _all _from last night? That drink you had was so strong…"

Chandra scoffed. "What, the whiskey? I mean, yeah, I'm a little hungover, but getting the chance to light things on fire would be more than worth it. So come on, please?" She clasped her hands, prayer-like, in front of her face, and her bottom lip began to quiver.

I had to hold back a laugh at how ridiculous the expression looked – Though I had to admit, it _was _rather endearing. Probably because it was so unexpected.

"Fine, fine," I sighed. "I'm not feeling too great, myself, though, so don't expect anything fancy out of me."

Chandra tilted her head a little as she regarded me, her expression suddenly gentle. "Well, you had a rough day yesterday. It's not like I forgot." She smiled. "Besides, all of us planeswalkers face death in some way, shape, or form to really become what we are. That generally involves getting a little singed in the process."

As was usually the case, I couldn't hold back the sarcasm. Or my grin. "So I should just expect fire metaphors at all times from now on?"

"Who _wouldn't _use that? It was so appropriate!"

I laughed, genuinely, and extricated myself from the sheets so I could grab my hunting tunic – which I had washed in the bathroom last night before I went to sleep – and my boots. With everything I needed to change into shortly in hand, I headed over to the door. "Just give me a minute to change, and I'll meet you downstairs in that common room we were in, alright?"

"Sure." She stood and brushed past me through the doorway, though not rudely. When her arm touched mine, she turned to give me a teasing wink. "Don't take too long in there, though. You don't need to fret in front of a mirror – You're pretty enough as is." Before I could respond to her compliment, though, she had trotted down the spiral staircase and out of earshot. It reminded me of the way she had departed last night.

Smiling, I headed down the hall and into the blue-and-white tiled room.

For a moment I did indeed regard myself in the mirror, as Chandra had warned me not to do – my lithe elven frame hidden by the too-large nightshift I had found in my room's closet; my white-blond hair that I so loved, which fell loose in the faintest of waves down to my breasts; my pale, pale green eyes that held a combination of excitement and uncertainty, along with a barely noticeable hint of fear. All of this I took in with a deep breath, and as I watched my chest rise and fall I noted how I looked exactly the same as I had before I had come to this place, to Ravnica. A little more scraped and bruised, perhaps, but otherwise identical.

_How long, _I wondered, _will it be until the changes inside begin to show?_

* * *

><p>"Wow," I breathed. "What <em>is <em>this place?"

Chandra smiled at me sidelong as we stepped through the archway and into the arena. It was more massive than I had imagined, with rows and rows of stone seats nearly five stories high on all sides, emblems of flaming fists adorning every space on the walls and above the doorways, and a shimmering, translucent white barrier serving as the vaulted ceiling. The entire place was empty save for us, and it echoed with the crunch of our boots against the dirt floor.

"Jace says that some group called the Boros Legion uses it for training," she answered, her voice echoing eerily in the vast space as well. Once we reached the center of the floor, we stopped walking, and she turned to face me with her hands on her hips. "I'm not familiar enough with Ravnica to know what that is, but apparently he has some connections in their ranks or whatever. So when I talked to him this morning, he said we could go here."

"I see," I murmured, though I wasn't looking at Chandra. My gaze was stuck on the ceiling-barrier, beyond which I could see patches of bright blue sky between the towering outlines of buildings. "I can't tell what _that_ is, though. I can feel white mana from it, but…"

"That? It's a seal," she said. "If there wasn't one, then who's to say some of the combat that goes on in here wouldn't bust a hole in the wall and spread to the outside?"

"True," I admitted with a shrug. When I finished admiring the sights around me a moment later, I turned back to Chandra and smiled. "Though I hope our fight today won't be _that_ intense."

She giggled wickedly, and a second later both her hair and her upraised hands had burst into searing flame. I had to step back a foot to avoid catching the sleeves of my tunic on fire. "You really think I'm not going to go all out just because you're a girl? Puh-_lease_. Prepare to get burned!"

"No!" I exclaimed, my voice indignant as I prodded the aether for a connection of green mana that I could hold onto. I found it quicker than I had expected, and in an instant I had little leafy vines twisting from my hands up to my arms as I channeled its power throughout my body. "I thought you wouldn't go all out because I almost got killed _twice _yesterday!"

Chandra laughed, a surprisingly feminine sound from someone as clearly tough a warrior as she was. "Nope! Sorry Rana, but you're about to get your ass kicked for a third time. And your blue knight isn't going to swoop in and save you, either." She grinned widely when she said the last bit.

I balked, and could feel storm clouds gathering around me when I inadvertently began to channel black mana as well in response to her words. "My _what_?"

She laughed again. Her eyes were nearly glowing with amusement now. …Or maybe that was fire. "Oh come on, I saw the way you were looking at him yesterday, all blushing and everything! I mean, I hate the guy personally, but I have to admit that it might do him some good to have a lady in his life. Maybe he'd leave his office and stop brooding for on-"

"_Chandra_!" I nearly shrieked. I could feel my face heating up, and it had nothing to do with my companion's brightly burning form. "I…he…I was _not _looking at him in any particular way! If _anything_, I was just noting that he's an attractive man, that's all!"

"Uh huh. Suuure." Her grin as she looked at me had turned devious, and I felt my heart sink all the way down to my stomach at the sight of it. "You're just saying that because you don't want Sorin to be right."

I scowled darkly, but try as I might, I couldn't think of a good rebuttal. _Great. She caught me. _"Well, what about you? You may be teasing me now, but I'm sure _you_ have your eye on some lucky fellow too."

The question seemed to have caught Chandra off guard, because she blinked at me and relaxed her battle-ready posture a little. Even the flames licking at her seemed to dim. "Well, I…" She opened and closed her mouth a couple times, and I felt a surge of triumph when I caught a faint blush coloring her cheeks. She seemed to regain her composure after a second, though, and with a laugh, she waved her hand dismissively. "I'm not interested in any mortal men, Rana. I don't have time for that, anyway, what with this whole 'saving the world' thing we're doing."

I smirked at her and cocked an eyebrow. "So it's an _im_mortal man, huh? A fellow planeswalker, maybe?"

Her blush returned in full force, and I savored the following few moments that she spent spluttering, trying to find the right thing to say.

Finally, she just gave up. "Okay, that's it." Her flames leapt to life again, burning brighter than ever, and the air around her bent and wavered with their heat. "You're gonna be crispy when I'm done with you!"

"Try me," I shot right back. I could feel the wind of the gathering tempest behind me against my neck, and at once I realized that I felt good. _Powerful_.

Chandra was going down.

With a cry, I thrust my bent hands upward, like I was pulling some great root from the earth – and indeed, something _did _erupt from the ground. Three more of the young treefolk that I had summoned against the brood lineage burst forth from the dirt beneath my feet, still shimmering with the ghostly aura that lingered for a few moments after their emergence from the aether.

_Well, that was pretty cool. Last time they just __**appeared**__!_

I didn't stop to wonder at the difference in their summoning, though – I was too busy focusing my will to direct them to attack Chandra.

Poor, overconfident Chandra.

She was just standing there, grinning, as my treefolk approached her, branch-arms swaying freely at their sides in preparation for a strike. When they got close enough, she let loose with several roaring fireballs – and gasped aloud when they just bounced off the trees' thick bark. By that time, however, they were too close for her to do anything to protect herself. She screamed as all three of them wound up and backhanded her across the chest, and she went sailing across the battlefield to land hard in the dirt nearly ten yards away.

When she rose to her feet, slowly, I could see the blood trickling from her mouth and nose. She reached up to wipe it away with a gauntleted hand, and fixed me with a glare that held both anger and astonishment. She was breathing hard.

And, apparently, she was not going to take that blow sitting down.

Her arms flew skyward, and an instant later, a creature that I could only describe as a shrieking, fiery cloud tumbled from the aether, opening its beak-like maw wider than any archway in the arena and soaring straight toward me. My treefolk couldn't react quickly enough to come to my defense, so I did the only thing I _could_ do – I crouched down on my knees, folded my arms in front of my face, and braced myself.

The fire engulfed me with a roar, and it took everything I had to hold back a scream as I was consumed by the horrible pain of being burned alive. The smell of my own scorched flesh and hair reached my nostrils, and I felt violently sick.

But before I could recover for even a second, I heard a crackling _whoosh _as Chandra summoned another fire-cloud, and sent it hurtling toward me with a wordless cry.

Bracing myself didn't do me much good this time, either.

As I choked, gasping for air only to find smoke and dancing, incessant flames, I felt a sudden surge of mana rush through me. The familiar sensation of swelling from within distracted me from my agony enough for me to focus for that one moment, that one desperate moment that I needed more than anything else in the world right now.

The mana answered me as silently as I had called it, and power exploded outward from every pore in my body.

Chandra screamed as she was thrown onto her back by the force of the blast, and when she and I looked up in unison – her face twisted in an expression of shock, mine in a grin of relief and triumph – the rift formed by my spell sucked in her swirling, screeching fire-clouds that were powerless to fight against its pull. A strange tearing sound rent the air as they passed into it, and then, without so much as another sound, the distortion was simply gone. Chandra lay there for a moment, staring at where it had been in stunned silence.

_That's right – She wasn't there before to see me cast that spell!_

I had been calling upon more mana to cast something else while she was distracted, but she shook her head and jumped to her feet before I could even form a connection. I hadn't been expecting that.

"Damn it!" she growled furiously. Her gaze was even more livid than her tone when she turned on me, brushing a bit of dirt off her tunic as she did so. "You can't just do that! I'm mad now!"

Shivering with pleasure as the green mana I called from my home forests of Zendikar flowed into me, I couldn't resist another one of my little jibes. I knew it would make her angrier than she already was, but I just felt so…_good_. I could handle whatever she might throw at me. "Oh dear, _spare _me!" My voice dripped with sarcasm, and as I had thought, her eyes narrowed dangerously when she heard it. "I'm so scared, Chandra! Please don't hurt me!"

Her hair had been ablaze this entire time – but where it had been a bonfire before, now it was an inferno. "Too bad," she snarled. "This is gonna sting. A lot."

Not bothering with any of the flourishes she had used before, she simply snapped her fingers, and a gigantic, humanoid mass of flickering flame and dripping lava came into existence at her side, staring down at me with its glowing eyes. I didn't even stop myself from letting out a scoff. _Am I supposed to be intimidated by that?_

Black mana from the swamps beyond my home mingled with the green mana already pulsing through me in time with my heartbeat, and another explosion, bigger than the first, shook the foundations of the arena.

Chandra was thrown back yet again, and could only watch in growing horror as my second rift swallowed her elemental like some great eldritch beast devouring its meal – in a single bite, no less.

When she stood this time, I could see that her eyes were wide and her legs were trembling. Though she was still clenching her fists in determination, and though she was still wrapped in an aura of fire that never burned her, whatever she was looking at was apparently as terrifying as her own personal hell.

With a start, I realized that her gaze was fixed squarely on me.

"Come on, Chandra," I heard her whisper, shakily. "Adversity into advantage."

Quick as lightning, she darted forward to land a flaming punch directly into my gut. I gasped at the unexpected melee blow, and doubled over with my hands covering my aching stomach to both mitigate my pain and swat at the bit of my tunic that had caught fire.

"I thought trees were supposed to burn!" she yelled as she pulled back from me momentarily, a note of desperation in her voice. My own treefolk stood motionless behind her, awaiting orders from me that, in my exultant distraction, had never come. "Why couldn't my fire beat them before?"

As she wound up to throw another punch, I suddenly lifted my head to look her directly in the eyes, and she froze.

Just…froze.

I, on the other hand, smiled. My voice came out barely louder than a whisper, and in an unsettling tone that chilled me to my core.

"Looks like you're running out of luck, Chandra."

Power burst forth for a third time, and Chandra screamed in terror as she was suddenly caught up in the heart of it.

Her flaming gauntlets – the target that my spell had latched onto – were yanked forcefully off of her arms as she was dragged, helplessly, toward the yawning rift. Her boots scrabbled at the ground as she tried to gain some footing, tried everything she could to escape the irresistible pull of the blackness beyond the distortion in the aether – but to no avail. There was nothing she could do to break free.

For a moment, it almost looked as if she was going to be sucked in along with her vanishing equipment.

But then Chandra screamed again, and there was a fiery explosion that incinerated my trees in an instant and sent me careening through the air. I hit one of the walls of the arena behind me with a sickening _crack_, and my vision darkened for a long moment.

When I at last opened my eyes, pain blossomed in the back of my head, and I let out a groan.

All that was left to indicate that there had been a battle was some blackened, smoking earth where Chandra and I had been standing just before, and little bits of dirt and crumbling stone littering the battlefield and the first few rows of seats in all directions. When I saw the pyromancer's body lying facedown, several yards away, I felt my stomach twist into knots.

"Chandra!" I called hoarsely.

I stood, fighting the pain and the dizzying explosion of color that clouded my sight, and stumbled as fast as I could over to where she lay to kneel down beside her. The fire that had wreathed her the entire battle had died down to nothingness, but her body was still hot when I reached out a shaking hand to touch her.

She groaned.

"Chandra?" I whispered hopefully. _Oh spirits, I overdid it. I lost control of myself, and I could have __**killed **__her-_

"Unnngh…I guess it was a good idea to recruit you. _Way _too strong…"

"Chandra," I breathed, my voice thick with relief. I bent closer to her as she rolled over onto her back and looked up with me, her eyes clouded with pain and confusion. I pressed a hand to her cheek. Suddenly, I felt overwhelmed by guilt.

"I'm so sorry," I gasped, trying to keep my hand steady as I fumbled in the endlessness of the aether with my mind for a tether to white mana. "I went overboard without even realizing it, and I…" I shook my head, and tried to concentrate on a healing spell when I finally found the line that I was searching for and held onto it tight. "I've never been that powerful before. Never. I have no idea what happened. Chandra, I'm really sor-"

"Stop," she murmured, interrupting me with a quiet laugh that took me completely by surprise. She reached up to touch my arm, and for the first time I realized how badly charred my tunic was. Parts of it were burnt away completely, leaving the exposed skin beneath a bright, raw red. "I went a little overboard on you too, so don't sit there and berate yourself. It's good to know the extent of your power, especially since you're part of our group now."

I knew I had to focus on the spell that I had finally begun to cast, but I couldn't stop myself from protesting. "But I-"

"No buts," she insisted, sounding stronger by the second as the mana flowed into her and healed her wounds. She sat up, though she didn't push my hand away from her cheek. Instead, she reached out to touch it with her fingertips, and smiled. "I've been hurt worse, anyway. I'll live."

At her kind expression, I couldn't help but smile myself. "No thanks to me, right?"

She looked almost affronted at that. "_Yes_, thanks to you! Look at you, Rana! You may have been pretty damn terrifying in that battle, but you're not a bad healer either!" Indeed, the color had returned to her previously pale cheeks, and her eyes had regained their vivacity. As I finished up the spell and let my hand drop into my lap, she chuckled. "Sheesh. You're in, a hundred and ten percent. Welcome to the team, already!"

I chuckled too, and already I could feel the guilt washing away into the aether with the remnants of my spell. What was it about these people that allowed them to calm me down like that? "Well…thank you, I guess!" I smiled warmly. "I'm glad the entrance exam is over, because I do _not _think I could do that again anytime soon."

Chandra stood and held out a hand for me, which I took. Gently, she pulled me to my feet. "Nah, the only thing you need to do now is go and talk to Jace. He told me that he has a few things he wants to discuss once I was done with you. Which I am, now."

Relieved that she hadn't made any comments at the mention of him, I nodded. "Where can I find him? In that common room?"

She shook her head and brushed a few chips of stone out from between the chainmail that she wore beneath her breastplate. "Probably not. I would guess he's in his office, as usual. It's up a set of side stairs in the common room, straight down the hallway from the landing."

I tried to picture the common room in my head, but the only set of stairs I remembered seeing was the one that led up to the bedrooms, aside from the one that led down to Jace's portal to the bar. _Guess I'll just have to look around. _"Aren't you coming?"

Chandra shook her head again, though she smiled this time. "No, sorry. I need to go to Dravhoc district first and run a few errands at the market before I come back and get myself clean." Her smile turned into a wry grin, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Good thing you patched me up first, though, otherwise I'd look more than a bit conspicuous. Not like I already don't, but still – Don't want to attract _too_ much attention."

I laughed a little. It took me a considerable bit of effort to push back the twinge of worry that was rising in my chest again. "You sure you'll be okay?"

Chandra's gaze softened, and she reach out to clap me gently on the shoulder. "Rana, hush. I'm _fine_, I promise. Stop worrying about me and go see Jace, okay?" For a moment she held her tender smile, and then, seemingly just as unable to resist as I was powerless against my flares of sarcasm, she cocked an eyebrow and pursed her lips into a devilish smirk. "I'm sure _that _will cheer you up."

I stifled a groan. I should've known better than to think that she was going to leave without saying _something _suggestive. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Chandra."

She giggled, and turned to head out the door opposite from where we had come in. "It does now." Once she was there, she lifted a hand to wave at me over her shoulder, though she still didn't look back. "See ya soon, Rana!"

When she was gone, I hefted a sigh and started to make my own way back towards the entrance, calling upon the last bit of white mana I could manage for another healing spell. In the state I was in, I wasn't sure if I would make it out of the arena – let alone back through the tunnels under the Rubblefield to the compound – without collapsing in a charred heap. As I walked and felt the warmth of the spell flow through me, I exhaled deeply through my nostrils. I was completely spent, but at least I wouldn't be half-unconscious and nearly fried to a crisp, as Chandra had promised.

Even once the spell had taken effect and cleansed me of all my wounds and burns, it still took me the better part of an hour to navigate my way through the labyrinth of subterranean passages back to the basement of the compound, and from there another twenty minutes just to find the damn common room. When I finally reached it, I wanted nothing more than to collapse down on one of the couches and sleep. Possibly for days.

But no – I had an obligation to fulfill.

Looking around the room for the staircase that Chandra had mentioned, I suddenly spotted it in the far left corner, partially hidden behind a bookshelf that jutted a little too far out from the wall. I didn't even bother to wonder why I hadn't noticed it before – In the state I had been in yesterday, asking me to pay attention to every detail was like asking a baloth to sit and stay on command. Fruitless, and utterly impossible.

I climbed the spiral staircase and, slowing my pace when I reached the top, walked down the hallway at leading down from the landing until I reached a dead end and a heavy door. Curved, intricate designs, like swirling spirals of mist, were carved into its dark brown frame, and at once I was reminded of the detailed rune Jace had drawn yesterday, in his fight against Sorin.

Hesitating for a moment, I at last lifted my fist to the wood and knocked.


	7. Chapter 7

"Come in," said a muffled voice.

Slowly, I pushed the door open and poked my head inside. It was heavier than I thought it would be, and moving it aside enough to squeeze my entire body through took a good ten seconds.

Beyond it, though, lay Jace's sprawling office. Plush blue carpet lined it from wall to wall – one of which in the back was, like the common room, composed entirely of windows, and the other three of which were composed of bookshelves. Two upholstered benches sat to either side of a long, narrow table near the window-wall, a couch sat just inside the door, and two rather comfy-looking chairs sat facing his desk, which was carved with the same designs as the door and made out of the same rich brown wood. Books and papers were stacked in neat piles across its large surface, leaving plenty of room for Jace's feet to rest atop it as he leaned back in a chair of his own. When he saw me cross the threshold, he smiled at me, and ushered me forward to one of the chairs with a brief wave of his hand.

"Ranewen. I've been waiting for you. Come, sit down."

I did. The chair was even comfier than it had looked, and I couldn't help but let out a little groan as I sank into it and felt the throbbing ache in my legs wash away.

He noticed, and chuckled. "Still tired from that fight with Chandra?"

I groaned again, and tilted my head over the back of the chair to look up at the sconces on the ceiling, which flickered with soft blue light. "_Exhausted_. I didn't think I would be able to beat her, but somehow I did. It took more out of me than I thought."

Jace's voice took on an odd tone that I couldn't decipher – Amusement? Curiosity? I hadn't a clue. "I thought that first rift-spell would've taken all your mana like it did against Sorin. Imagine my surprise when you didn't just stop there, but you went ahead and cast _two _more."

My head shot up to look at Jace – whose equally odd expression matched his tone – and gaped at him in shock. "Wha…How do you know about that?"

He chuckled again, and I finally saw the first hint of amusement on his face as the corners of his lips turned up in a smile. "I'm a _mind-mage_, Ranewen, remember? Just because I was elsewhere doesn't mean that my awareness is restricted." He folded his hands behind his head, cocked an eyebrow at me, and then uncrossed his boots on the desk before crossing them again. "It was a good fight."

I shook my head at him, in part to hide the fact that I wasn't doing a very good job at keeping a straight face, and in part because I was still bewildered. I was busy praying to every spirit in existence that he hadn't seen enough of the battle to catch Chandra's repeated comments about him and I – because if he had, then that would just be _awkward_ as all hells. _I _was awkward enough on my own without assistance.

"I'm going to have to keep my eye on you," I murmured. Once I was sure enough that I had regained my inner composure, I looked at him and forced myself to smile. Surprisingly, it wasn't hard. "You're too unpredictable, and I'm not really one for surprises."

Before I knew what I was doing, I realized that I was wrapping a lock of my hair around my finger _ever so slowly_ as I met his gaze. _Damn it! Stop it, Rana!_

But Jace's reaction didn't exactly encourage me to do that. He met my gaze head-on with a raised brow and a mischievous gleam in those too-blue eyes of his, and as he regarded me, he lifted a hand to idly stroke his chin. "Huh. Well then, I'll remember not to send you anything without first informing you exactly what it is, and exactly when you'll get it." His lips curled into a grin. "And here I thought women _liked_ surprises."

Despite myself, I couldn't help but marvel at the feminine grace with which I batted my eyelashes. Had Sorin cast some sort of spell on me before, when he had been trying to ensnare me with his…vampire-ness? "I mean, I do _sometimes_, but it depends on the kind of surprise."

His grin widened. "Duly noted. But…I'm afraid we'll have to get back to the task at hand, because it _is _rather important. If you're ready?"

"Oh! Yes, of course." I straightened in my chair, trying as best I could to wipe away the stupidly coy smile that had begun to spread across my face.

Jace nodded. At once his expression, too, changed – In a matter of seconds, he looked utterly businesslike, and any traces of his previous mirth had vanished. He took his feet off the desk, and leaned forward over it to face me, hands clasped tightly in front of him. "So I talked to some of the Consortium spies this morning, and they've been able to provide me with a few leads."

"Leads?"

He nodded again. "Leads as to where we could find other planeswalkers. Potential allies. All of them are equally viable, so I thought I'd run them by you, see what you think."

"Me?" I was a little confused as to why he would want _my _opinion since we had just met, but I decided not to ask questions. "Um…sure. I'm listening. Go on."

"Right." Jace licked the end of his fingertip, and then began flicking through a stack of parchment at his elbow that appeared to be stuck together. After a moment, he pulled out a rather ink-stained sheet, and laid it out before him to pore over it for a minute. I leaned in to see what was written on it. With a start, I realized that it was in a language I didn't recognize. _Of course. This isn't Zendikar_. "The first option, and in truth, probably our best bet, is the plane of Mirrodin. It _is _rather dangerous to go to right now, but planeswalkers flock to danger like moths to a flame, so that's why it's the most obvious choice."

"What's so dangerous about it?" I asked. After yesterday, I wasn't exactly worried about danger, but I _was_ curious.

Jace sighed. "There's, uh…a full-scale war going on, between the natives and the invading Phyrexians. War itself isn't anything too out of the ordinary, but…" His brow twitched, and for a moment he hesitated. "Well…the real problem is, Phyrexians have a tendency to…._vivisect_ people. Planeswalkers especially. They think the planeswalker spark is some organ they can harvest."

I stared at him in abject horror. "Are you kidding me?"

Jace's gaze softened in sympathy with my emotion. "No, I'm not. They can prolong the experience for an extended period of time, though no one knows how. Believe me, I wouldn't like getting cut into and studied for years on end just as much as you wouldn't."

I shook my head. "I don't think anyone would," I murmured. After a moment of staring down at my hands on my lap, I looked back up at Jace, who was just sitting and waiting patiently for me to say something. "Is there any way we could just…avoid those Phyrexian guys?"

He tilted his head as he looked at me. "Avoid them entirely? No. Avoid getting caught? Yes, we can do that. It's going to involve fighting either way, though. The Phyrexians are like the Eldrazi in the fact that they have the ability to travel across the Blind Eternities, so there's no saying that they won't come here when they're finished with Mirrodin."

_Great. More world-walking bad guys. _I pursed my lips in thought. "But you did say that Mirrodin was our best bet, right?"

"I did. There's rumors of at least two planeswalkers there, maybe more."

I nodded. _So Mirrodin, then. _"Okay, well, could I hear the other options before making a final decision?"

Jace suddenly smiled, and a flicker of appreciation passed through his eyes as he looked at me. It caught me off guard, and quickly, I bent down under the pretense of retying a loose lace on my boot in order to keep him from seeing the color spread to my cheeks. _Damn it, why does this keep happening?_

"Of course," he said. After a moment I was able to sit up straight again, and when I did I saw that his expression had returned to the calm, businesslike one from before.

"First, there is someone here on Ravnica, in the undercity, who seems to be trying to revive the Cult of Rakdos – a bunch of demon worshippers known for torture and human sacrifice. His own followers worship him as a god, which makes me think that some sort of mind-altering planeswalker magic is at work, or maybe some sort of domination. From what I can gather, his name is Alanor Fireheart."

"Subtle," I muttered. "Sounds like my type of guy."

Jace's lips twitched, in what I hoped was an attempt to hold back a smile. When he spoke, I caught a well-concealed note of humor in his voice, so I guessed myself to be right. "I know he doesn't sound like someone we could trust, but we have to at least learn a little bit more about him, maybe find out what his goals are. The Cult of Rakdos used to be an important part of the balance among the guilds, after all – They gave people someone to fear, which then drove them into the arms of the Boros Legion for protection." He shrugged. "Besides, if worse comes to worse, we can just get rid of him. I'm sure the last thing this city needs is some overpowered fanatic running around killing people."

Though murder wasn't exactly something I felt comfortable with, I had to concede that Jace had a point. Slowly, I nodded. "You're right. I don't think I want to put him first on the list of priorities, though – He sounds too…volatile, for me. Or maybe that's just the inexperience talking." I offered a weak smile.

Jace took the bait, and smiled back, briefly, before returning his gaze to the parchment and scanning over it for his next lead. "Very well, then. We can scratch that one off for now. So let's see…there's a goblin invasion on the plane of Mercadia, which we also suspect is being led by a planeswalker. Does that sound interesting?"

My brow furrowed as I scrunched up my face into a disgusted scowl. "Ugh. No, not really. Goblins were always scurrying around our forests, trying to ambush people passing through." I folded my arms over my chest, feeling my frown deepen as the memory of being attacked by one on my very first hunting expedition – and then having to chase it through the trees to recover my stolen knife – was pulled from the depths of my mind. "Awful little creatures. Maybe goblins on this other plane are different, but the ones back home…no thanks."

Jace chuckled. "You should tell that to Chandra. She's not too fond of them, either."

"Maybe I will." I shook my head. "Then we can sit together and commiserate over a bottle of wine."

At this, Jace barked out a laugh, shortly followed by a groan as he pressed his palm to his forehead. "Oh Ranewen, don't. That's a horrible idea. She doesn't hold her wine well – and believe me, you do _not _want to see her drunk."

I paused for a moment – his sudden outburst had surprised me a little – but then I smiled and shrugged. "Fine then. _I'll_ take the wine, and she can just have that…whatever it was last night, that whiskey. _I'm_ certainly not going to be drinking it anytime soon."

Jace smiled at me back, warmly, and I could feel my face heating up again. "Well, we're going to have to go to Mercadia _sometime_, I'm sorry to say. The plane used to be ruled by goblins, and they were overthrown a long time ago. That's why this invasion is apparently a big deal – goblins from all over are gathering and amassing behind this mysterious would-be planeswalker of ours, hoping that they can take the plane for themselves again. Make some sort of goblin utopia."

I just stared at him, not even bothering to hide the incredulity in my expression. "And that's supposed to _convince_ me to go?"

He laughed. "No, it was just supposed to give you some context. If we help them out with this revolution, and it succeeds, then we would likely have some pretty powerful help on our side."

I shrugged, then found myself letting out a little laugh of my own. _It may be important, but no way. Never. Not in a million years. _"That we would, but I'm still going to put this option at the very bottom of the list. You are _not _going to convince me otherwise!"

Jace, too, shrugged. He cocked an eyebrow at me as he let out his breath in a sigh, and when I saw him do that, I tried – and failed – to read his expression. "If you say so. I guess you'll be wanting to hear the last option, then?"

"You guessed right."

"Well." He glanced over the parchment one last time, and then gently set it to the side, beneath a stack of very old-looking books that were bound in leather and smelled of ancient dust, even from here. He picked up a quill pen in its place, and began idly twirling it between his fingers. "The last lead I was able to get concerns a rather strange individual, who I'm almost certain is a planeswalker due to the fact that he's been seen here, on Lorwyn, and on Naya. He calls himself the General of Death, and apparently he's been going around gathering all kinds of…specimens. Native creatures that don't have enough of a presence of mind to realize they're being kidnapped."

I frowned. "That's…also extremely unsubtle. What does he look like?"

Jace shrugged. He was still twirling his pen, and I noted with a hint of surprise that he hadn't dropped it even once. Either this was a practiced habit, or he was very deft with his fingers. "No one knows what he actually looks like, since he's always wearing a suit of heavy black armor. Could be either dwarf or human. I'm guessing dwarf, but that's just a hunch."

"Your guess is as good as anyone's," I murmured. I leaned forward to rest my elbow on his desk, and then placed my chin in my hands as I thought. "I'm assuming that's all you've been able to find out about this guy?"

He nodded. "Right. He was last seen in Lorwyn, so if we wanted to follow up on the lead, we could go there and see if any of the locals have heard of him. I'm sure _someone_ must have, with an outfit that conspicuous."

There was a pause, and then Jace finally set down the pen and lifted his head to look directly in my eyes. I could see the hesitancy in his gaze. "There _is_ one other lead…though I can tell you right now that I don't think any good will come out of it."

"What is it?" I asked. I winced when my voice came out sounding a little more curious than it should have.

Jace huffed, then began to rub one of his temples with his fingertips. "You…remember Chandra saying that there was another elf planeswalker from Zendikar? Nissa Revane? Well, I was thinking that we could try and find her, ask her to help us out, but…"

"But what?"

"But…_she_ was the one who destroyed the central hedron, which was the last thing holding the Eldrazi back besides the lock we broke. She did it on purpose. She thought that they would leave Zendikar the second they were free, and spare the plane entirely, but…she was wrong."

Abruptly, and quite unexpectedly, I felt a hot mixture of anger and hatred swell up inside of me. It burned my chest from within like lava. "So, what…you're saying that someone from my own homeworld, of my own _race_, no less, is the one responsible for dooming everything to destruction?"

For once, it seemed like Jace was the one who wasn't able to read _my_ expression. He drew back in his chair a little bit, and fixed me with a look that seemed at once sympathetic and wary. "In a roundabout way, yes."

I clenched my hands over the arms of the chair. It took a few long, deep breaths to slow my heartbeat from its rapidfire pace, and to cool the heat that threatened to ignite my veins. _So this must be what Chandra feels like when she makes herself a human torch. _Finally, after a few long moments, I sighed and slumped back, limply, before fixing Jace with an expression that must have looked tired. "Besides that reason, why else would it be a bad idea to go looking for her?"

Jace caught my gaze and then looked quickly down, still pressing his fingers to the sides of his head. "Sorin was traveling with her when she broke the hedron, and he says that she was acting nearly mad right before it happened. He seems to genuinely hate her, though, so that could just be his own personal bias talking." He shook his head, which sent his dark hair falling in front of his face like a curtain. "Either way, I wouldn't be surprised if she just abandoned or betrayed us when it suited her needs. From what Sorin told me, she's very…self-absorbed."

"I don't want anything to do with her," I growled instantly, surprised at my sudden certainty and at the hardness in my voice. "My vote is that we go to Mirrodin. There you have it."

The room fell into silence for a time. I sat in my chair, arms crossed, breathing hard, and Jace sat in his, staring down at the wood of his desk with another – surprise! – unreadable expression. After a minute had passed, he finally sighed, and looked up at me. Now he was smiling, though faintly. "That's what I was hoping you'd say."

For another minute he paused, and then he reached out across the desk to gingerly touch me on the arm. I flinched, startled by the unexpected contact, and couldn't stop myself from looking directly up and into his eyes just as I began to blush. _Of course. _

His voice was soft when he spoke. "Ranewen, I promise that we're going to let you fight for your people. That's why I wanted to include you in all this. You're part of the team now." He leaned in further, though only a little, and allowed his smile to widen. "Like Chandra said, you're not our servant – You're a new set of eyes, and though it may take a while for you to adjust to things, that doesn't mean your perspective isn't useful."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "That _is_ a pretty good metaphor," I admitted.

He chuckled too, and at that moment I noticed that his hand was still lingering on my arm. Though I had a gut feeling that I should, I didn't make any moves to brush it away. "Glad you think so. Sorin is betting against you, you know – He thinks you would have been better off had he just drained you and made you his slave. I'm trying to prove him wrong."

"Thanks for that," I murmured. I hadn't intended for my voice to come out so quiet, but it did nevertheless.

Jace grinned. "You're welcome." Finally, he pulled away so that he could lean back in his chair, and I realized that my skin still felt warm where he had touched. I missed it instantly. "Sorin needs a good blow to his ego, anyway."

"Glad I can be the provider for you," I said. It took me a moment before I realized that I had just echoed his words from last night.

He smiled again, and for a moment we sat there in silence, doing nothing but regarding one another with our own curious expressions and our hands folded in front of us – and as I watched him, I found myself wondering why Sorin and Chandra both had been so fond of teasing him, of teasing _us_. Perhaps there was something I wasn't seeing. That wouldn't surprise me, given how oblivious I'd always been…

"So, would you mind accompanying me to Mirrodin tomorrow morning? I'll do my best to make sure we stay out of trouble so that your first mission won't be _too_ traumatizing."

I snapped back to reality with a start at the sound of his voice – But before I even had time to think about his question, I found myself nodding enthusiastically.

"No," I said simply. "I wouldn't mind at all."


	8. Chapter 8

Chandra and Sorin were nowhere to be found the next morning.

I had been hoping to see the pyromancer one more time before planeswalking to Mirrodin with Jace - who had decided that attracting too much attention with a large party wouldn't be wise, and that it should be just the two of us going - but unfortunately, she had absconded on another errand. Jace assured me that it was an important one, so I let go of my disappointment and focused on other, more urgent matters.

Like my first solo planeswalk, for instance.

Jace also assured me that I would be fine so long as I followed the bright blue of his aether trail - and, sure enough, he was right. It was certainly unpleasant, being buffeted by what I had coined the Mana Roil of the Blind Eternities (in honor of the dear old Roil back home), but I was able to focus my will well enough to keep myself from being ripped to shreds by it. Besides being able to see the vividness of Jace's trail, I could feel the unique aura that it emanated - At times, however, neither of those things were quite enough. I eventually found my way again every time I stopped to reorient myself in the dizzying swirls of color, though not without feeling as if my heart were about to burst right out of my chest with its beating.

Finally, I stumbled through the open portal that Jace had left behind.

I emerged in some sort of large, metallic tunnel, with ceilings that sloped high above me at jagged angles and spires of some sort of crystalline rock that grew up from the ground. It stretched ahead of me for what must have been miles, judging by the way it fell into pitch-darkness after a distance, and everything – the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the spires – glowed pale red under what I could only guess was its own light.

_For the spirits' sakes, is there __**anything **__green outside of Zendikar?_

Suddenly, that thought reminded me of something – some_one _– and my heart skipped a beat.

_Where's Jace?_

Frantically, I spun around to search for my lost companion. I could feel my breath coming hard and fast now, as the realization hit me that I was alone on a unfamiliar world, sans guide, and with very little planeswalking experience under my belt in case I needed to make a run for it - Besides the fact, of course, that something bad could have happened to Jace. Which was the last thing I wanted.

Fortunately, it didn't take me long to find him.

Unfortunately, he was frozen nearly solid in a large specimen of crystal spire.

One of the most enormous men I had ever seen - if you could indeed call him a man - stood leaning against that spire, an utterly blank expression on his face as he regarded me from an adjoining tunnel. He was bare-chested and dark-skinned, with thick, ash-colored spikes of metal serving as his hair and fingers, and twisting up his arms and across his abdomen to form vents that seemed to…_glow_, with an unearthly, fiery light. He appeared to not even notice that Jace was trapped within his armrest. Or care.

However stupid it might have been, I opened my mouth to yell out and started to rush forward to Jace's aid - only to find my legs rooted to the ground. When I looked down to see what in the hells was going on, I saw massive, thorned vines growing out from the earth and wrapping me tightly from toe to thigh. My heart stopped.

"And where do you think _you're_ going?"

When I turned my head to see who had spoken, I suddenly found that I couldn't breathe.

A veritable swarm of horribly misshapen figures – which I realized, with a start as I squinted in the dim light, were _merfolk _– stood behind me, each one with some sort of nasty-looking weapon drawn and at the ready. Some of the figures stood on triple-jointed legs, others had four pairs of arms running down their sides, and still others had claws that looked as long as my leg, and twice as thick.

Before I could wonder what in the name of the Roil had happened to them, another figure stepped forward from the crowd as it parted for him like water.

This mer was taller than the rest, and had no visible deformities save for a scar or two across his bare chest, which shone pale against the slick blue-green of his skin. He wore nothing but a gold loincloth, and the spear that he held in his hand was simple - made of coral, and tapering into a sharp, reddened point. He had no adornments either, save for the traditional coral headpiece that covered the front of his scalp and held back his mess of hair, long and beaded and braided in the front and black as night-

Coral headpiece. Beaded, braided hair.

_Legs._

_Then that means…_

With an audible gasp, the realization washed over me.

"You're from Zendikar," I breathed. For a brief moment I forgot everything else around me - the tunnel, the metal man, Jace in his crystal prison behind me - everything besides this mer, and the weight of the implications his existence held.

Whatever he had been expecting out of me, though, it certainly wasn't that. One of his slim eyebrows arched, and he took a step closer to me, walking all the way around so that he could meet my gaze directly.

"What are you doing here?"

"Seeking help," I answered honestly. Despite the fact that the tip of the mer's spear had been lifted to hover a few scant inches away from my throat, if my guess was correct, then we would surely be able to trust him. Or so I hoped. "My friend and I are planeswalkers. We're looking for others like us who can aid us in an important fight. We don't mean any harm."

"So you say," he murmured. His voice was deep, with a faintly rough edge to it that brought to mind the merfolk raiders from back home. "But how am I to know that you can be trusted? You could easily be Phyrexian in disguise."

I swallowed. _Just what __**are**__ these Phyrexians? _"I'm not, I promise." As he looked me squarely in the eye, I fixed him with the most pleading expression I could manage, and prayed silently that he would see my sincerity. "He's from Ravnica and I'm from Zendikar. I can answer anything you want to prove it, and I'm sure he can too if you just let him go." For a second my gaze went to Jace, who had been frozen mid-crouch, one hand covering his face and the other outstretched as if in the middle of casting a spell. His eyes, which were the only things he could move, were wide and worried as they gazed toward me. I finally noticed a tiny hole in the crystal right at the level of his face - a breathing hole, it must be. I hoped it was enough. "Please, can you do that?"

The mer scoffed, and stood up straight so that we were no longer face to face. My heart sank into my stomach. "Not likely." For a moment he fingered the ridges that ran the length of his spear, his touch as gentle as a lover's caress, and then he turned to look at me again with an expression even more unreadable than Jace's had ever been. I braced myself, expecting him to say something - But instead he reached out, lightning-quick, and pulled a long strand of hair from my scalp. As I winced and rubbed my head, I couldn't help but shoot him a glare.

"Hey!" I exclaimed. "What was that for?"

But he was too busy sniffing the hair to respond. His expression was intent and thoughtful, as if he were pondering some great mystery of the cosmos.

_What in the hells-? _

"Ah," he muttered after a moment. He rubbed his fingers together to dislodge the strand and send it floating to the ground. Still he didn't turn to look at me, but a little bit of the hardness in his voice had evaporated, which I took to be a good sign. "Indeed. You were speaking the truth, about Zendikar. And I detect no traces of the Phyrexian taint, either."

"How-"

He held up a hand to silence me. "But that means little. I have no reason to trifle myself with you or your…friend." His gaze flicked to Jace for an instant, and then to the dark-skinned metal man still standing impassively beside him. "Come, Koth. We should make our way back to the refugee camp before the bulk of the horde arrives."

The man - Koth - shrugged, cracked his knuckles, and stepped forward to make his way to the mer. The two of them, along with the group of mutated merfolk, began to head out the side tunnel from where they must have come - and at once I realized that if I didn't do something, then both Jace and I would be stuck here. Which likely meant our deaths.

"Wait!" I yelled. Despite the panic that threatened to overwhelm me, I forced myself to stand up tall when the mer stopped and turned to me, wearing an expression of disinterest. "You're fighting the Phyrexians, aren't you? We can help!"

"And how do you plan on doing that?" He sounded almost bored.

I refused to let the tone of his voice get to me, however, and instead I focused on channeling the familiar sensation of green mana as it flowed into me and through me. As I had hoped, the bonds around my legs responded to my mental probing, and with a single thought they sloughed off and to the ground. I stepped onto them, satisfied at the crunch they made when the heel of my boot crushed a thorn underfoot.

"I am an arboromancer," I said firmly, "and he is a mind-mage. We are not as defenseless as you may think us to be." I clenched my fists at my side, feeling the chill of black mana envelop my entire body as I called upon it - cold, cruel power that sent goosebumps up and down my arms. I didn't want to fight, but if that was what it took to free Jace, then I would do it. I wasn't a coward. "I would strongly suggest that you let him go."

At this the mer barked a laugh. There was an odd sort of gleam in his slanted eyes as he stepped forward to meet me, and it made me nervous. "You're either very brave or very foolish, little elf, to be challenging me." In mere seconds he had closed the whole distance and was standing right there, looming like a giant over me, leaning in so close that our noses were almost touching. I could feel the heat of his breath on my face. Suddenly, I found myself rethinking my decision. "Do you have any _idea _who I am?"

"No," I said simply. "Didn't I tell you that we're not from here?"

His eyes narrowed at my flippant tone – which I immediately decided had been a _very_ bad choice – and his own voice lowered to a growl. "Then _I _would strongly suggest that you stop throwing about empty threats, before one of them gets you _killed_." I felt the sudden pressure of his spear against my neck, and it drew a whimper from me that I could do nothing to hold back. "I have more important business to attend to than babysitting either of you, planeswalker or no, and I-"

"Vincenius," came a gravelly voice from behind us, sharp with alarm. "The bastards found us."

The mer whipped around, scanning the tunnel ahead of us with eyes that had narrowed even further into thin slits - and as I watched, they suddenly shot wide. When I followed his gaze, I had to clap a hand to my mouth to restrain my horrified cry.

If I had thought that the Eldrazi were the stuff of nightmares, then these creatures must have been the scions of madness itself.

Metal limbs twisted at sharp angles from every part of their bodies, bladed like massive knives and gleaming silver-black in the red light. Gaping maws loomed wide, with jagged teeth that looked as if they could rip a man's head from his neck with a single bite, and they uttered wordless shrieks that shook the earth beneath me and set every nerve of my body alight with terror. They reached out toward us as they charged forward from far down the passage, all twenty or so of them, with their equally bladelike arms that bent back on themselves and then back again. I couldn't speak. Once again, I couldn't breathe.

"Damn them," Vincenius hissed, taking a few steps back. His grip on his spear tightened, and after a moment he spun to look at me. His eyes were blazing with anger. "You and your friend want to prove yourselves? Fine. Here's your chance. Fight these Phyrexians with us, and then, perhaps, we'll talk."

"You have to let him go first!" I nearly cried, backing up and away from the advancing monstrosities until my body hit another crystal spire.

"Koth."

The man grunted his assent, and then thrust an arm out in the direction of Jace's spire – which, at his unspoken command, shattered into a million pieces. Jace fell forward and onto his knees, with the shards of his prison falling about him like glimmering rain. Immediately, he began to cough and gasp for breath. I rushed to his side.

"Jace," I whispered urgently. "Jace, are you alright?" For a moment, the Phyrexians could wait. I put one hand to his chest to keep him from toppling over entirely, and my other arm curled around his shoulders.

"I'm…fine," he rasped. His voice was hoarse from all the coughing. I could see, too, that his body was shaking from the vehemence of his nearly hacking up a lung, and I wondered if I should cast a healing spell. "Damn that geomancer to every hell, he would have just left me here!"

"I wouldn't have let him do that," I assured.

For a brief second, his blue eyes lifted to mine, and I saw a flicker of something cross them too quickly for me to catch it. "No," he said quietly, "you wouldn't. Thank you, Ranewen."

"We don't have time for this!" Vincenius suddenly snapped. Jace and my heads shot up in unison to look at him, and I noted the strange mixture of anticipation and blind fury that consumed the mer's young face, and seemed to almost hover in the air about him like an aura. "Whatever you have to discuss, it can wait. Right now, we fight."

I nodded, and in a second I had leapt to my feet and helped to pull Jace to his own. My heart skipped a beat when I saw how much distance the Phyrexians had gained. They would be upon us in less than a minute. "What do you want us to do?"

"You come with me. Boy, you go with Koth - There's another squadron closing in two tunnels away, and he's taking my men and heading them off. Fight with all you have, if you want to live."

I saw Jace's brow twitch at the order, but he said nothing. Quickly, he turned to me and fixed me with a serious look.

"He's right. I should have told you more about the Phyrexians before we came here, and I'm sorry I didn't. They're nothing to be taken lightly." He hesitated for the span of a second, and then finally reached out to place a hand on my shoulder. Even through my tunic, I could feel its warmth. "I wasn't expecting something like this to happen, but I guess we have no choice now. Just…" His voice grew quiet, and suddenly soft. When I looked in his eyes again, I found that they held the same worry as before. "Don't get yourself killed, alright?"

"I'll try." I forced myself to smile.

With that, Jace's hand left me, and he said nothing more. He simply turned, nodded to Koth as he stood beneath the sloping archway marking the entrance to a side tunnel, and rushed off to join him. The remainder of the merfolk had already left, and as I watched, Jace's cloaked figure and Koth's muscled one, too, disappeared into the darkness.

I was alone with Vincenius, and a horde of twenty onrushing Phyrexians.


	9. Chapter 9

"Vincenius," I whispered, "we can't take them alone."

The mer chuckled, and as I watched, his muscles seemed to…_roil_ beneath his skin. His grip on his spear tightened.

"Can't we?" he growled.

Before I could blink, he had launched himself straight toward the Phyrexians in one single, impossible leap. Before I could cry out in alarm, he was wholly upon one of them, standing with perfect balance atop its back as it shuddered and writhed in an attempt to shake him off.

Before I could scream, his arm bulged to the size of my entire torso, and he reached down to rip its shrieking head from its body.

As I gaped at him in a mixture of shock and horror, Vincenius tossed the head aside as carelessly as if it were a child's toy and then leapt off of the dead Phyrexian before it crumpled to the ground. The others began to emit ear-splitting cries at the sight of their fallen companion, and they all turned their glowing red gazes to its killer. The way they suddenly began clicking their disgusting metal limbs together filled me with a sense of dread.

"No!" I gasped.

I could feel the mana still flowing through my veins, belonging there as much as every drop of my blood. As I rushed down the tunnel toward the beginning battle, I called upon it to pull a creature forth from the aether that I had only summoned twice before – a great treefolk, bigger than the trio that I had brought against Chandra and the brood lineage. It wrenched itself forth from the red ground with a _crack_, and before the Phyrexians could realize what was happening it had flung two of them aside with one powerful sweep of its root-arm. Their limbs fell apart from the force of the blow, and they lay against the wall, twitching and dripping some foul-smelling black substance.

"Vincenius!" I screamed suddenly. "Behind you!"

But the mer had already seen the object of my attention. The Phyrexian rearing back on all of its hind limbs, poised to launch itself atop him, received a swift spear to its exposed underbelly that sent it staggering backward into the horde. Several of its brethren toppled over upon being hit, and Vincenius leapt upon them with a savage snarl that dropped my heart all the way to my stomach. I caught a flash of hideous, serrated teeth as he tore at them, his muscles swelling to freakish proportions as he rent them apart like some sort of rabid beast.

The sight and smell of it made me sick.

_Just who __**is**__ he?_

By the time I reached the edge of the fray, my treefolk was caught up in a struggle with several of the Phyrexians that had latched their blade-limbs into its trunk. It shook its entire body side to side, thick branches swaying and leaves rustling, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't dislodge them. Feeling my stomach churn with anger at the sight, I thrust my palms forward and let out a cry.

"Take _this_, bastards!"

But before my spell could even take form in the aether, something heavy and hard and _sharp_ landed atop me, forcing me to the ground beneath its weight. My face hit metal, and the breath rushed out of my lungs. When the adrenaline kicked in and gave me enough strength to roll over, I found myself staring up into the beady, unblinking eyes of a Phyrexian. Hot, black liquid dripped from a gash in its belly onto my own, and the scalding pain that flared at its touch returned my voice and set me screaming. Loudly. Its stench hit my nostrils in one giant wave, and suddenly, in the middle of feeling as if I were being boiled alive, I realized what it was.

Oil.

Struggle as I might, I couldn't wrench myself from the Phyrexian's grip enough to focus on casting a spell. I could only watch in terror as it lifted one of its remaining limbs, the blade of it dripping even more oil, and poised it directly above the center of my forehead.

"Get _away_ from her!"

Before it could make the killing strike, something brown and wriggling flashed through the air in front of my face, and struck the Phyrexian full-on. The monster fell off of me with a shrieking crash, and after a few moments of flailing uselessly against whatever creature was assaulting it, it fell limp. I still couldn't move, though. The oil felt as if it had soaked its way through my skin and mixed in with my blood to pollute me from the inside. With every beat of my heart, I felt as if I were being stabbed by a million tiny knives that came from every direction.

But I had to get up. If I continued to lie here like this, then I would die.

Gritting my teeth against the pain, I forced myself to roll over and onto my knees. As I did, I finally saw just what it was that Vincenius had sent flying into the Phyrexian's face – a _giant_ _leech. _I drew back from its still-squirming form in repulsion. If there was anything I hated more than goblins, it was _leeches_.

There was no time to dwell on my own particularities, though. As I clambered to my feet, I saw that the Phyrexians were making their way further and further up my tree's trunk, clawing viciously at the tiny roots that made up its face, and I could see the sap pouring from hundreds of cuts and gashes across its surface. Try as it might to pick them off, though, to send them flying into the wall and break whatever metal bones were in their bodies, it just couldn't handle so many of them at once. My heart sank. There was nothing I could do to save it…or even to destroy the Phyrexians, at this rate.

_Unless…_

"Vincenius!" I yelled, sidestepping a glob of oil that came soaring through the air toward me as the mer sliced a Phyrexian into bits with arms that he had turned into blades of his own. It took everything I had not to retch at the way his skin nearly bubbled as his muscles flexed. "Move, now!"

He didn't have time for pride. Turning to meet my gaze for the briefest of seconds, he nodded and leapt easily over the head of the Phyrexian he was dicing, rolling beneath another that lunged for him as soon as he hit the ground. When he rose, so too did it – though skewered on the ends of the razors that stretched out from his elbows.

With the coast clear, I said a silent apology to my tree for what I was about to do, and called upon my mana to latch a spell directly onto its face.

A moment later, there was a sound as if the universe itself were being torn in two, and then the entire tunnel shook with the force of my rift as it exploded into existence.

I was thrown backward and into another Phyrexian by the shockwave, and as its oiled blade sliced my side upon impact, my vision went white. I screamed and screamed, falling to the ground in utter agony, and I could feel my body twitching uncontrollably when I reached my hand up to the wound that now trickled a steady stream of blood. I might have called out Vincenius's name, or Jace's – so lost was I in my own torment that all awareness of the battle around me faded away, and even whether or not I was still alive.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, my senses returned.

I hadn't died.

Perhaps only a few moments had passed, for everything was still raging around me as heatedly as ever – Vincenius, who stood directly over my prone form, was pushing the Phyrexian that I must have gotten knocked into off of the end of his spear and fixing his gaze on an armored, blade-armed humanoid that stood several yards down the tunnel from the other Phyrexians. My vision was still swimming too much for me to see whoever it was with any clarity, but I knew from the stiffness in Vincenius's posture that their arrival didn't bode well for us. And with my tree gone – though it had taken nearly five Phyrexians with it – I was providing no aid.

When I tried to move and felt an unimaginable pain flare through me, I gasped and sank back down onto the metal earth. I _couldn't _provide any aid. Not in this state.

Above me, Vincenius flicked his wrist, and a shimmering, translucent merfolk appeared directly in front of the humanoid with a _whoosh_, fins trailing behind her like beautiful silk – and before it even had time to react to her appearance, she fell atop him like a tidal wave.

Even from this far away, I saw her press her lips to its neck as a lover would before sinking her teeth in and tearing out its throat in one swift, almost graceful motion.

Not just from my pain, I felt as if I might vomit.

There was a sudden screech as one of the last remaining Phyrexians came scurrying toward us, half of its limbs extended in a battle-ready position. I could hear Vincenius scoff at what I presumed to be its audacity, and he artfully twirled his spear between his fingertips before turning to meet it face-to-face.

However, what he didn't see was the other Phyrexian circling around behind us to throw itself at his exposed back.

My breath caught in my throat. Vincenius did indeed notice this other Phyrexian, but too late – it slammed into him square in the stomach as he turned, blades flashing and blurring as it sliced him relentlessly, leaving long, oil-stained cuts in its wake.

The other Phyrexian was quick to take advantage of the distraction, and it, too, fell upon the mer in a flurry.

As he grunted in pain and effort, struggling to push the looming creatures off of him so he could have room to fight back, I felt a burst of mana suddenly, inadvertently bloom to life inside of me. It pushed away the pain that darkened my vision and sapped the last of my strength, and replaced it with power. Thick, tangible…consuming.

Black mana.

Before I could even think, I felt my body lifting off of the ground to hover a few inches in the air, and my vision darkened even further with the storm clouds that lifted my hair and tunic in their brewing tempest. Vincenius's eyes widened ever so slightly when he saw me, though he never once took his entire attention away from his attackers.

There was a flash of blinding purple light, and then I crumpled into a heap once more as the world around me melted away.

* * *

><p>"I think she's awake."<p>

"Ranewen. Can you hear me?"

My only response to the voices was a groan. I couldn't feel the unmistakable pain of the Phyrexian oil burning through my body, but my head hurt like no other. I could feel my pulse pounding in my ears.

"I can't tell if that was a yes or not. You're going to have to use your words."

_Jace. That's Jace's voice._

"Shuddup," I slurred. I still didn't open my eyes, but I could feel the fog evaporating away. "I feel horrible."

Several people chuckled. From the sound of it, there must have been three of them.

"Ranewen," came Vincenius's voice, suddenly smooth compared to its harsh rasp from before, "I healed you. For all intents and purposes, you're fine. We need to speak, so please, sit up."

Sighing, I forced myself to open my eyes. I was lying on my back in a bedroll, and Jace was sitting beside me with his hands on his knees. Vincenius was sitting cross-legged beside him, a calm, almost pleasant expression on his face, and Koth was sitting in the far corner away from everyone. The roof over our heads was made of sharply slanted metal, resembling some sort of tall tent. As I blinked and looked around, Jace placed one hand on the small of my back and helped lift me into a sitting position, which I was able to hold after a few seconds of steadying myself. I blinked a few more times to clear my vision.

"Where are we?" I mumbled.

Jace gave me a sort of half-smile. "We're in the refugee camp a couple of miles down the tunnel from where we planeswalked in. We did it. Koth and I beat our squadron of Phyrexians, and you and Vincenius beat yours. Apparently you let loose with some dark magic at the end to help finish them off."

My eyes widened. I hadn't remembered that before, but now the memory of the nearly unbidden spell was coming back to me. It wasn't an _unfamiliar_ spell, for certain – I often used it when I needed to kill a number of baloth hatchlings that were chasing me through the woods – but I couldn't remember having the strength to call upon my mana, let alone cast it. Very strange. I decided to let the matter go for now, though. I would have time to ponder it later.

"How did _your_ battle go?" I asked, curious. Koth was – like the last time I had seen him – almost perfectly silent and expressionless, and I suddenly wondered if he was as vicious while fighting as Vincenius had been. Maybe it was a Mirrodin thing.

But Jace's hesitation before answering was definitely not a good sign, "Ah…we'll talk about that later, alright? I think we should probably get to business while there's still time."

"Oh." I looked around at the others, and found myself holding back a confused frown when I noticed Vincenius's hands folded neatly in his lap and the way he was fixing me with an ever-so-patient look – _What happened to that deranged killing machine from the battle? _"Uh, if you say so."

"Good," Vincenius said, coolly. "I have a great deal of business to attend to, so I would appreciate it if we could keep things short."

Jace nodded. I did the same.

"Koth," he said, sweeping his arm in a grandiose gesture toward the corner of the tent where the metal man sat, "I do believe that you haven't introduced yourself to the lady."

"Neither have you," Koth returned gruffly.

Vincenius's brow arched, and the corners of his lips curled up in a small smile. "Very well." He turned back to Jace and I and allowed the smile to widen before bowing his head just a little, a few strands of his black hair falling loose about his face. "Vincenius, mer biomancer and head doctor of the Mirran refugee army, at your service. I apologize for my behavior earlier – I tend to get rather irritable when I'm out on patrol, as Koth can attest."

The man snorted.

Suddenly finding myself unable to quell my mounting disbelief, I let out my breath in a sigh and shook my head. "Is that…is what you did back there, in the battle…part of your powers as a biomancer?" I shuddered at the memory of his bulging muscles, and teeth, and his arms-turned-blades. I had never seen anything like it in my twenty-five years of life. "You could have taken on all those Phyrexians alone!"

Vincenius simply shrugged, and held his thin smile where it was. "I could have, yes. But I figured that allowing you and your friend – Jace, was it? – to fight with us would give you a chance to prove yourselves, as I said before. And here we all are, so I would say that things turned out rather well, wouldn't you?"

I nodded. "Yes, but…you didn't answer my question."

At this, Vincenius's smile faded. Nothing replaced it – just a blank expression. "Well…" His gaze held mine, and for a moment I thought I saw him cock an eyebrow at me. "When you live for ten thousand years, you learn to keep a few messy tricks up your sleeve. Never pretty, but they work like a charm."

Next to me, Jace's jaw dropped in unison with mine.

"Ten _thousand _years?" he spluttered. I noted with some surprise that it was the first time I had seen him lose his composure – and if Vincenius's revelation hadn't been so shocking, I might have laughed. "But that means…you must have…"

Vincenius's smile returned, and he nodded. "Yes, indeed. I was a planeswalker long before the Mending. I gave up a good deal of my power in order to help close the time rifts, but still I live." An almost mischievous gleam grew in his eyes as he watched Jace's own nearly pop out of his skull, and he chuckled. "Surprised, mind-mage?"

Jace could only shake his head.

Though my companion still seemed to be in a state of semi-shock, Vincenius waved a hand dismissively and turned his body back to Koth. "But enough about me. That's a tale for another time. Koth, if you could take it from here, please?"

The man sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. From his body language – coupled with his perpetual, almost impersonal silence – I gathered that he didn't seem to like talking very much. Now, though, he grudgingly spoke, in a gravelly rumble that sounded as ancient as a mountain. "I am Koth of the Hammer, one of the last of the Vulshok. I have sworn a vow to see Mirrodin purged of every last Phyrexian, every last drop of their glistening oil, before I draw my dying breath." He paused for a moment, seeming to note our surprised expressions at his rather intense opening statement, and then shrugged and continued. "If you two wish for us to help you, as the boy said to Vincenius and I previously, then I have an offer for you. It will not be easy, but it is the only offer I can give."

"And what is it?" Jace asked cautiously. From the way his eyes narrowed when he looked at Koth, I could tell that he was still holding a grudge about the whole imprisonment-in-crystal incident. I didn't blame him. Had I been in his shoes, I would have too.

Koth hesitated for a moment, and then he nodded, though more to himself than to either Jace or I. "Two of our allies – planeswalkers themselves, no less – went to the heart of the Phyrexian empire, Ish Sah, on a scouting mission very recently. They were scheduled to return yesterday morn, and neither of them yet have." For the first time, a flicker of emotion passed briefly across his face – and to my surprise, I recognized it as fear. It was gone an instant later, however. "Their names are Venser, and the lady Elspeth Tirel. He is an artificer, and she a knight of the plane of Bant. We need them both, back here. Alive."

"If you can do this," Vincenius finished, for Koth seemed to have exhausted his desire for speaking by the way he sank back against the metal of the tent, folding his arms behind his head, "then we will aid your cause however we can, so long as it doesn't interfere with our fight against the Phyrexians here."

A silence fell over us all as Jace stared down at his knees, buried in thought, and I stared at him in turn. This was clearly not my decision to make.

Finally, after a minute, he lifted his head and spoke.

"Fine. We accept your offer." His voice was firm, somehow different from the businesslike tone he had taken when discussing our options with me back in his Consortium office. He paused, and for a moment his blue-eyed gaze came to meet mine. I nearly gave a start, for there was a look of determination there that I couldn't recall having ever seen before, and it was so strong as to catch me completely off guard. "That is, unless there are any objections?"

I trusted Jace's judgment on this matter far better than I did my own. "No objections," I said. Though my head was racing with thoughts of what I might have to endure now, I kept my voice calm.

Vincenius smiled broadly at this. Even Koth managed a nod. Clapping his hands together in front of him, the mer stood, and walked swiftly over to the sewn-cloth entrance of the tent.

"Excellent. With us being so shorthanded as of late, I can assure you that we are very grateful for your help. Now Koth, we should leave these two alone to rest. They've had a long day, and we can begin preparations for the excursion in the morning."

Without any further word, the vulshok stood, and then both him and Vincenius departed from the tent and into the darkness of whatever part of Mirrodin lay beyond.


	10. Chapter 10

I barely slept at all that night.

Once Vincenius and Koth had left the tent, Jace and I spoke little – It was too hot, and we were too exhausted from our respective battles. Two bedrolls had been set up for us in the small space, and so we fell to them almost immediately – though not before Jace pulled off everything save for his leggings, and I undressed down to my underclothes. I blushed and averted my eyes from him for a moment before I realized that he didn't give a whit about modesty in this heat, and neither should I. Still though, old habits were hard to break, and I wrapped my thin sheet around me tight so that when I stood to go to the tent flaps, it hung down from me like a dress.

"Where do you suppose we are?" I mused. I poked my head out between the cloth in an attempt to answer my own question, and found myself staring into a gigantic cavern that stretched in every direction as far as the eye could see. The entirety of it was packed from nearly floor to ceiling with crudely built metal structures – some tents like ours, others apartment-style buildings stacked one on top of the other. A few of them were large, and built out of different types of metal than just scrap. One of them stood catty-corner from us across the narrow street, with smooth walls and carved panels on the towering front doors. I wondered vaguely who it might belong to.

"The refugee camp," Jace finally answered, drawing up to sit beside me on his knees. This close, and in this place, the heat of his body felt like a furnace. "Vincenius said that we're beneath some mountain range near a place called Kuldotha, which is why it's especially hot here."

"No kidding," I muttered.

That comment brought a smile to his face, albeit a tired one. "He said that everyone's been building it up bit by bit over the past several years, with whatever material they can scavenge from the tunnels and the surface, when it's safe to go up there. It's like a little city, almost. Vincenius even has a clinic all the way in the back." He rested his elbows on his knees, and as I was doing, he observed the myriad of people walking through the streets, human and elven and goblin and a few other races that I had never seen before. All of them seemed in a terrible rush, even this late – though I only knew that it was, indeed, night because Jace had told me so earlier.

I shook my head. "It's bigger than almost every human settlement I've seen back on Zendikar, that's for sure." Reaching up, I wiped away the sweat that was beginning to bead on my brow with the back of my hand.

Beside me, Jace did the same. Part of his hair stuck out at messy angles, and the rest of it was plastered to his forehead and the sides of his face. I had only seen him once or twice with his hood down, but now I realized that without it, he looked almost…boyish. Young, like me, instead of long-faced and brooding as his true 4,500-year-old age seemed to demand.

I also noticed, with some interest, that his tattoos only went down to his collarbone.

"So what do you think?" I asked after a short stretch of silence, leaning back from the tent flaps and allowing them to fall closed. Jace had stopped looking outside a few moments ago, and had turned his attention instead to the blood and Phyrexian oil that stained the clothes he had set aside. "About this search-and-rescue mission of ours?"

At that, it was his turn to shake his head. "Honestly? I'm not sure what to think. I just know we don't really have a choice if we want their help." He flopped back onto his bedroll with a huff, and for a long moment he stared up at the slanted ceiling, his eyes half-closed. He looked and sounded wearier than I had seen him yet. "Ish Sah is an incredibly dangerous place, and full of Phyrexians even worse than the ones we fought today, but yet…There are _two _other planeswalkers we could get on our side if we can manage to pull this off. That would just…" He sighed, and pressed a hand over his eyes. "That would be the biggest success, Ranewen, you have no idea!"

I scooted back onto my own bedroll, and lay down on my side so that I was facing him. My whole body ached. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to sleep. "Then why do you sound so troubled?"

Jace turned his head then to look at me, and when I saw the expression he wore I felt my breath hitch. There was something akin to pain there in his blue eyes, and…guilt. A great deal of guilt. They were almost sad as they held me in their gaze.

"Because I'm dragging you into something horribly dangerous – and on your very first mission, no less! What kind of leader does that make me, Ranewen? What kind of _person_?" His voice was soft, and held the same emotion as his eyes. I found myself unable to turn away. "I don't want to see you get hurt. Do you know how much I sat here worrying, when Vincenius carried you back here covered in blood? I was terrified out of my mind that I'd gotten you in too deep." He shook his head, slowly. "And now I've done even worse."

"Don't say that," I murmured. I wanted to reach out and put my hand on his arm, to give him a comforting sign, but some part of me held me back. "Jace, I'm doing this of my own will. I know I don't really have a choice either, but that doesn't mean I don't _want_ to be here." I felt a measure of relief wash over me when he stirred and looked me in the eyes again at my words, and that encouraged me to continue. A small smile broke out across my face. "So please, stop worrying. What was that I said before…'being so pessimistic isn't doing anyone any favors.' Right?"

Finally, _finally_, he chuckled. It was faint, and weak, but…it was still a laugh. It was _something_, and I held onto it tightly. "Right. I'm sorry. I think it's just the lack of sleep talking."

I laughed too. He was smiling at me now, and I felt significantly lighter than I had just a moment before. "Then go to bed! I'm certainly not stopping you."

"True enough." He pulled his sheet up to his chin, and rolled over onto the far side of his bedroll. His back was to me now, but he lifted his head briefly to flash me another small, tired smile before he lay his head against his pillow. "Goodnight, Ranewen. Thank you again, for everything today."

"Yeah." I was surprised to find that I could barely speak above a whisper. My heart was doing funny things in the bottom of my throat, and for the life of me, I couldn't seem to push my voice up past it. "You're welcome. Sleep tight, Jace."

"You too."

But I didn't. Try as I might to close my eyes and drift off, I continually found myself snapping awake to one thing or another – the sound of conversation from somewhere outside our tent, the creak of expanding metal all around, a sudden wave of heat that covered me and clung to me with near desperation. And always, there was Jace's quiet, even breathing, in time with the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest as I watched him in the pale red light that came from everywhere and nowhere.

When I finally did fall asleep, I dreamed of home – a dream of fire, and the acrid stench of death.

* * *

><p>The entirety of the next day rushed by in a blur.<p>

Jace was nowhere to be found when I awoke – discussing mission business with someone, I assumed – and so I was left to my own devices for a good deal of the morning, with nothing to do but explore my temporary place of residence.

Eventually, I wandered my way into Vincenius's clinic.

The mer himself was busy organizing some supplies in a trunk by the arched front entrance – which was rather convenient, since the clinic proper was _massive_, and would have likely taken me hours to navigate. After a few moments of 'good-mornings' and 'how-did-you-sleeps' and other such pleasantries, I proposed to him the idea that I had been brooding on during my walk – a brief training session, to better prepare me for the dangers I would face against the Phyrexians of Ish Sah.

Vincenius was rather surprised, but he didn't refuse.

After a quick breakfast of some strange, tough meat that tasted vaguely of copper, he took me to one of the tunnels behind the clinic which was, like the one Jace and I had arrived in, littered with crystal spires that clung to both floor and ceiling. We made our way to an open space between them, and for the next hour or so he lectured me on the nature of Phyrexians – what they looked like, what their weaknesses were, how they fought…even how their twisted mockery of a society functioned.

Nearly everything he told me was frightening, but the most so out of it all was their complete lack of mercy.

He told me that not only was the oil that they bled poison, but it was also the source of the corruption that had been slowly devouring Mirrodin from the inside out. With the memory of its burn fresh in my mind – and on my skin – it wasn't hard to believe him.

In order to combat that corruption, he said, I would have to learn how to summon a creature that was impervious to its effects, and that could cleanse others of the taint it left behind.

Fortunately, he continued, since coming to Mirrodin he had developed just such a creature, and for just such a purpose.

It took several more hours for Vincenius to teach me how to summon that creature from afar, to call an aether-form replication of it to my side whenever I should have the need. It was a time-consuming process, and tiring – deep concentration and meditation were not on my list of specialties, regardless of the fact that the creature was one of green mana, and a treefolk, even. When I inquired as to why he had chosen its nature as he did, he simply smiled and shrugged. "Am I not allowed to miss the forests of Zendikar as much as you do?" he asked, almost knowingly. "They were never any sort of home to me, but they were a familiar sight all the same."

In that moment, I felt an immense surge of appreciation for the mer.

Finally, once I successfully made a mental connection with this creature I had become so anxious to meet, everything happened in a rush. Out from the ground it burst, in the same fashion as had my own treefolk from yesterday's battle, with a flourish of gnarled limbs and waving vines. It was tall, humanoid – the bark that curled to form fingers and twisted into a grimacing face was blue-green, almost like a marsh at dawn. Tiny straw-and-cloth heads – scarecrows, Vincenius called them – topped the branches on either side of its own head, and when I saw them I felt chills run the length of my spine. From the way Vincenius grinned, that had apparently been the intended effect.

"Now let's see how you fare commanding it!" he exclaimed, crouching down low with his knees spread. It was a battle-ready posture.

I blanched. "There's no way!" I cried. My voice sounded more than a little fearful – rightly so, I decided. "I can't battle _you_, you'll tear me to pieces!"

Vincenius shrugged, offering nothing but a small, guarded smile. "Maybe so. But good practice always leaves you with a few scrapes and bruises, doesn't it?"

I could feel the knot growing in my stomach, but I forced myself to ignore it. "Well…yes. Though I don't think getting your head ripped off by giant teeth counts as either of those."

At that, Vincenius chuckled. "Just try and hit me, Ranewen. That's all I ask."

I shook my head. "If you say so…" Clenching my fists at my sides, I began to concentrate. I willed with all of my might for the treefolk to send a blow Vincenius's way, to attack him with as much physical force as it could muster – and, to my immense surprise, it obeyed. I hadn't been expecting my command to work on the first try.

What I also hadn't been expecting was for Vincenius to not only dodge the blow, but to leap all the way over to me and send a powerful punch of his own directly into my gut.

The force of it sent me tumbling backwards, gasping and clutching my stomach. I managed to roll to my knees, but for a horrible second I thought I would vomit all over the metallic earth. I could see Vincenius approaching me again out of the corner of my eye, walking as slowly and casually as if he and I were on a pleasant afternoon stroll, and my insides tightened even further with fear. Desperately, I called out to my tree, pleading silently for it to do something, _anything_, to keep him from hitting me one more time.

But too late. As I saw the tree turn and begin loping across the battlefield, Vincenius slipped up behind me as easily as a fish would in water. I saw the flesh of his arm bubble and warp into a thick, flat blade, and an instant later he brought it down onto my head with a _crack _and a dizzying tide of pain.

"Too slow," I heard him say.

_Some battle_, I thought in return, as I sank for the second time in just as many days into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>"Ranewen."<p>

The voice that called to me was familiar, but not enough that I could recognize it in this state.

"I can see that you are waking. When you open your eyes, I would like to have a word with you."

_So formal. Who talks like that?_

…_Oh. Of course._

"Koth…?" I groaned, forcing myself to sit up. I was, as I had expected, back in the tent, in my bedroll. Vincenius must have healed me again, and then brought me back here…again.

The vulshok, who was sitting calmly at the entrance to the tent, nodded. "Yes. May we speak?"

"I…" I didn't know what else I could say to him, so I just sighed and rubbed my still-throbbing forehead. That mer bastard must have healed me just enough so that I could still feel some pain, as a reminder. "Sure. What do you need from me?"

Koth tilted his head to the side ever so slightly. "I was hoping to ask a favor of you, if I may."

_Well then, out with it! _I wanted to yell, but I didn't. "And what favor would that be?"

His mouth hardened into an even thinner line than it had been before, and his hands tightened their grip where they rested on his thighs. I found myself wondering if he had ever smiled in his life. "I wish to accompany you to Ish Sah in your companion's place. I am here to request your permission to make this so."

My eyes widened, and for a moment I could only stare at him, mouth hanging open as I tried to find the right words. _That_ had certainly caught me off guard. Finally, I managed a puzzled "But…why?"

Koth shrugged. "It would be satisfying to finally strike a decisive blow against my enemies, and to do so in the name of my home. Is that not enough?"

Now _there_ was something I couldn't argue against. It was something I could sympathize with, even. And Mirrodin _was _Koth's native plane, so perhaps he might know its byroutes better than Jace would… "Ah." I paused, rubbing my temples in an attempt to relieve some of the ache that was making it so damn hard to think. "I'm not sure that decision is mine to make. Have you talked to Jace about it yet?"

Koth shook his head. "You know as well as I that he does not regard me fondly. I doubt he would even listen to my request, let alone heed it."

He had a point. Practical as I had come to know Jace to be, he also seemed to be the type who held fast to grudges – especially when they had formed in a life-or-death scenario. "So…what, you want _me _to ask him then?"

Koth nodded. "Yes. I would be most grateful if you did so, little one."

I wasn't exactly pleased with the title, but my head was pounding too hard for me to complain. I sighed. "Sure. As soon as I find him, I'll ask. I promise."

Koth nodded again, and rose to his feet. He was so tall – or the tent so small – that his head scraped the metal ceiling when he straightened, and the sound of it made me flinch. But the vulshok seemed to have not even heard. "Evening falls," he said, strangely soft underneath all that commanding rumble of his. "The boy shall be returning to you shortly, I imagine. You do not need to go searching for him."

Before I even had the chance to respond, he had ducked his head and left, with the tent flaps fluttering gently in his wake.

I lay back down on my bedroll and closed my eyes. My head was spinning now, and I couldn't make out a single shape in front of me without having to squint, so I decided to just bypass both of those problems by taking a quick little nap. Koth had said Jace would be coming back soon, so I was sure some rest wouldn't hurt…

I couldn't tell whether it was minutes that had passed, or hours, when I finally heard the _clink _of boots against metal close by, and opened my eyes to see Jace kneeling down next to me.

"So I hear Vincenius beat you pretty soundly, huh?"

I groaned and resisted the urge to throw my pillow into his grinning face, however tempting it might be. "You weren't supposed to find out about that," I protested, in a voice just a little too whiny for my own tastes. "Or did Vincenius parade me through the streets when he brought me back here, with music and dancers and everything?"

Jace chuckled, and shrugged his thick blue cloak off of his shoulders. He was still shirtless underneath it. "If he did, then no one told me. _I _was off getting information from the local scouts on how best to get to Ish Sah from here without getting sliced in half by a hundred Phyrexians." As he spoke, I noticed the pack he had set at his feet, and the ends of rolled-up scroll that poked out from inside. "We're going to be leaving early tomorrow morning. The scouts will lead us all the way to the surface, and then we're on our own from there. They were telling me how it's safest to travel alone or with just one other, to avoid detection."

_And here comes the fun part. _"About that," I cut in, wincing inwardly when he closed his mouth and then smiled down at me pleasantly, waiting. "Koth, um…he was here, just a bit ago. And he was asking me if…" _Oh hells Rana, just hurry up and get it over with! _"…if he could go to Ish Sah with me, instead of you. He says he wants a chance to get the Phyrexians back for all they've done. And to be honest, I feel sorry for him." I finally managed to lift my head and look at Jace, and immediately I felt a rush of guilt at his expression, at the dawning mixture of anger and confusion that lit his eyes like blue fire.

"Oh, so the metalhead thinks I'm not up to the task?" he said hotly. I drew back from him a little, involuntarily, and he noticed the gesture and gave me a hurt look. "Ranewen, he's a bipolar _maniac_. You didn't see him in battle. He was so driven by his emotions that he was barely paying attention to what was going on, and got several of Vincenius's men killed as a result. Do you really trust him, to be the _only_ companion by your side on a dangerous mission like this? _Do you?_" He reached out and grabbed me by the arm, though not roughly. As he pulled me in closer to look me directly in the eye, I saw that he wasn't angry – he was worried, almost desperately so. My heart wrenched.

"Then why don't you go with Koth instead?" I gently removed Jace's hand from my arm, and found it momentarily hard to breathe when his touch lingered on mine for a few seconds before he pulled away. "You're far more experienced than I am. I'm sure I would just get in the way."

Jace shook his head. "No, you don't get it. I brought you here on this mission so that you could have a chance to _get_ experience, so that you could see what kinds of things a planeswalker has to deal with by being in such a position of power." His hand resting on his lap – the hand that had held me – twitched briefly, as if it had been about to move before he thought better of it. "I don't want you to start feeling like you're here just for decoration. You're not. You're clearly intelligent and headstrong, and you have the potential to be powerful and do great things, if you make the right choices." His gaze had softened considerably when I met it now, and that combined with the sincerity of his compliment brought a red glow to my cheeks. Fortunately, Mirrodin's ambient lighting did wonders in hiding it.

"So you're saying I _have_ to go, then," I said, quietly.

Jace nodded. His own voice had grown quiet too. "Yes. I want you to go. I want you to see things for yourself. The multiverse is a widely different place outside of Zendikar." He paused to draw in a deep breath, and then after a moment he let it out in an equally deep sigh. "So _you _have to pick. Either Koth, or me."

Though I knew my answer, that didn't make it any easier to put to voice. "If _I_ have a right to fight for my homeland," I whispered, "then so does he."

Jace looked almost crestfallen, but his voice betrayed no emotion – only a piercing calm. "Fair enough. I wish you two luck when you leave tomorrow." He stood, bending low to keep his head from hitting the ceiling as Koth's had, and scooped up his cloak and pack under one arm as he did so. At first I thought he wasn't going to look back, but then, finally, after a long moment, he did – over his shoulder, and with a hint of sadness as he held one hand on the tent flap and the other on the pocked metal beside it.

"I hope you stay safe, Ranewen," he murmured, "or else you won't be the only one regretting your decision."

Then he was gone.

* * *

><p>By the time our entourage of scouts left us behind as we stepped out onto the surface of Mirrodin, I was hot, sweating, and <em>tired<em>. And we still had several days' journey ahead of us.

Jace hadn't been there when we had departed. I remembered waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of him returning to the tent and crawling into his bedroll beside me, but in the morning he was nowhere to be found. My heart dropped into my stomach at the memory. I knew he wasn't happy with the decision I had made, but I hadn't been about to back down from it just because of that. What I had said was true – Koth deserved to be able to fight for Mirrodin, just as I deserved to fight for Zendikar. It was as simple as that.

Now, as we trudged silently across the hot, windless plane, with the five suns beating down on our heads and reflecting off of the jagged metal ridges all around, I couldn't seem to push thoughts of him from my mind. I hoped beyond hope that he wouldn't resent me for what I'd done. His kind support was one of the only things that had pulled me through everything I had experienced so far, and I truly didn't want to lose it…If I did, I wasn't sure what I would do.

There was nothing for me _to_ do now as we walked but take in the scenery, and brood. And I considered the towering, sharp-edged mountains on all sides more hazardous than picturesque, despite their lovely pinkish-red tint.

Koth spoke very little as the day wore on. He continued to remain reserved even as we set up camp for the night in a small alcove beneath the crest of a hill. I wondered as I popped a gel fruit into my mouth and he tore at a chunk of meat on the bone whether this was just the way he had always been, or if perhaps he had a lot on his mind lately. Like me. Perhaps normally he was the chatterbox of the refugee camp – though somehow, I couldn't see that option even being a possibility.

The next day passed similarly to the first, and then the next – endless skies stretching out above, endless heat that blazed about us like a furnace, endless miles and miles and miles of walking over inhospitable terrain and, on occasion, hiding behind the nearest jagged prominence as a group of Phyrexians moved by. I never saw them – Koth was adept at detecting them before they showed their faces – but I could _smell _them, always. They smelled of oil, and of the cloyingly sweet, unmistakable scent of decaying flesh.

Every time they passed, I felt a harsh shiver course through me.

Nearly five days from the time that we had first set out, our surroundings began to change. The hills and mountains flattened abruptly, fading away into the earth like the bodies of dead giants. The air thickened and almost glowed, with an eerie, unsettling green haze that hung over the twisted metal tree trunks like a curtain. All around, there was the smell of dead things, and of rot.

The Mephidross, Koth called it. He said little else as Phyrexian oil began to bubble up beside the narrow walkway, and splashed onto our boots.

After another day of traveling through this filthy wasteland with nothing happening of note, the vulshok suddenly fell to his knees, and pressed both of his hands to what little earth there still was.

"By the great red sun," he whispered, "I can feel a battle being waged." For a moment he hesitated, as if he hardly dared to believe whatever it was he was feeling, and then he looked up at me with wide eyes. His voice was soft. "Perhaps they still yet live, little one. Perhaps Sheoldred has not had her way with them yet."

One of my eyebrows darted up my forehead. "Sheoldred?"

Koth nodded, and rose to his feet. "Yes. One of the Phyrexian praetors. Last I heard from my scouts, she was here at Ish Sah, taking the place of its usual leader under temporary orders."

"Wait," I gasped as realization dawned on me, "_here_? You mean we're close?"

Koth nodded again. "Yes. The reason we have not encountered many Phyrexians of late is because they all lie beneath our feet, crawling under the surface like the worms they are." He clenched his fists at his sides, and his black eyes hardened. "What comes next will not be easy, for we need to find a way-"

Suddenly, there was a loud _pop _behind us, and we spun in startled unison just in time to see a figure fall, coughing and gasping, into the oily marsh.

In an instant, Koth's vents were alight. He took a step toward the figure, looming so tall and menacing that I couldn't help but recoil from him, and it looked as if he were about to bring all of his might crashing down in one blow before a hoarse voice stopped him dead.

"Koth," it said, as the figure lifted his blood- and oil-covered head to look up at us both. I realized, with a start, that it was a young man, hardly older than me or – at least in appearance – Jace. He held a dented metal helmet beneath his shaking arm. "Koth, it's me."

The vulshok's eyes went even wider than they had been before, this time in wonderment. "_Venser?_"

The figure nodded, and struggled to his feet. It didn't occur to me to help him up until after he was already standing. "They have Elspeth," he said breathlessly. For the first time, I noticed the gash across his lower abdomen, which was dripping blood. "I have to go back and get Vincenius. If she doesn't get a healer soon, she's finished. I-"

"_I'm_ a healer," I interrupted quietly. Feeling a sudden sense of resolve come over me, before either of the men could turn to look I stepped close to Venser, and held a hand out over his wound. For a moment I closed my eyes in concentration, and then at once I felt the mana bloom inside me, warm and white and pure and wholly familiar. At my command, it spread outward and into him to knit the torn tissue and flesh tightly together until it was new. When I finished, stepped back, and opened my eyes, the man was staring down at me with a look of awe.

"Well, that's convenient," he murmured.

At his tone, I couldn't help but smile. "Ranewen of the Tajuru, at your service." I placed my first two fingers to my forehead and then pulled them stiffly away in a salute, as I had seen Vincenius's men do to him. It just felt like the right thing to do. "You're Venser, then?"

He nodded, and a wry grin of his own spread across his lips. Despite the layer of filth that coated him, in that moment his handsomeness shone through. His smile was of the infectious kind. "Yeah. Sorry for not introducing myself, but given the situation I'm sure you can understand." He wiped a hand on the ragged sleeve of his tunic in an attempt to clean it before he held it out to me. "Venser of Urborg, artificer and transport specialist, at _your _service." I shook the offered hand firmly.

"If Lady Elspeth is truly in the danger you say she is, then we do not have time for this," Koth hissed suddenly, behind us.

"Ah." Venser shook his head then, as if clearing away a mental fog. I had done it before myself, so I recognized the gesture. "Right, right. Sorry." His gaze instantly grew solemn as he looked into Koth's eyes. "_I_ managed to escape, but the Whispering One still has her. I don't know what she's doing, but from the sounds of it…" He winced. "That's why I thought I'd go back and get Vincenius. He's a healer and a fighter both, and I thought he would be our only chance at saving her."

"Well, we don't have time for that," Koth said, harshly, "not even _with_ your teleport. You have to take us there, _now_, before that abomination lays another corrupted finger on her!"

Venser nodded, and before I had a chance to say anything he stepped forward and wrapped an arm securely around my waist. Koth reached out to take his other hand.

"Hold on tight," the artificer whispered, and then in a rush and a blur the Mephidross was vanishing from around us, and a sensation like being pulled apart in two different directions overwhelmed me.


	11. Chapter 11

When I became aware of my surroundings again, I found myself in a dank place that smelled of blood and rotten meat.

It was too dark to see anything. Beside me, I felt Venser's arm remove itself from my waist, and then a second later a blue wisp of light sprang to life a few feet in front of our faces. It cast flickering shadows on the walls around us, which I realized with a start were made not out of any stone or metal, but of flesh – hideous pink _flesh _that quivered like jelly as I watched. I clasped my hand over my mouth in an effort to hold back my gag. Vincenius hadn't warned me about this part.

Venser seemed to notice my discomfort. "Awful, isn't it?" he whispered. When I turned to look at him, I could see that his own face was wrinkled up in an expression of disgust, though at his side Koth was as impassive as ever. "The first time I came down here, I just wanted to turn right back around and get the hells out. It gets worse, even, which is just great."

"_Much _worse," Koth added quietly.

I shook my head. I didn't want to believe the both of them, but I knew that I would be a fool not to. I just couldn't imagine what in all the hells I would need to prepare myself for that could be worse than the Phyrexians I had already seen, or the _flesh walls _pulsing around me.

What a lovely first mission that Jace had sent me on.

Cautiously, the three of us began to inch along one of the walls and into the encompassing darkness. Venser's wisp only lit up perhaps a three foot radius all around, and so we had to stick close as we crept along into spirits knew where, following his lead. Though he said nothing, he seemed to recognize the surroundings and have an idea of where we were, as well as where we were headed. I had no choice but to trust him.

"Do you think Elspeth will be alright?" I whispered after awhile. I had been wondering why we hadn't just teleported straight to her, though I was sure Venser had some good reason for it. Koth wasn't protesting, after all, and that was the best sign I could look for.

There was a pause, and in the brief silence I could hear our footsteps echoing back at us from high above. _So we're in a cavern, then. _"I really don't know," he murmured. His voice was soft, and not just from his efforts to keep quiet, as we were all doing. "I've never had the pleasure of meeting the Whispering One in person, thankfully, though I've…heard stories. Plenty of them. And none of them end well."

My heart began to pound in my chest then. I could feel the nauseating wave of anxiety rush up into me all of a sudden, and it took nearly every ounce of resolve that I had simply to quell it. Fortunately, the darkness was effective at concealing my expression from my companions – As much as I felt they wouldn't judge me for being nervous in a situation like this, I didn't want them to get any ideas that I was a coward. I wasn't. I was just…

…_in a little over my head._

Suddenly, there was a grating screech from behind, and Koth and Venser whirled in unison as quick as lightning. My heart pounded harder.

"Negator mage!" Koth shouted, and his vents leapt to life like some great bonfire. Standing so close to him, I could feel the heat coming off from them in waves.

Venser darted in front of me. With him in the way, I couldn't get a good look at whatever was coming for us, despite Koth's additional illumination. "It's got the Whispering One's minions," he hissed through gritted teeth. "Three of them."

"We do not have time for this!" Koth roared. I could see his vents flare even brighter when he yelled.

When I finally pushed my way forward to look over Venser's shoulder, I let out a gasp. There was a blade-armed humanoid, similar to the one that Vincenius had taken out before but smaller, and behind him – her? It? – were three twisted figures. Long, thin necks topped with tiny heads, huge eyes, and birdlike beaks poked out from armor shaped like skulls and painted in blood, and their equally spindly limbs seemed to writhe about for no reason. All of them were charging toward us now, all the while letting out horrible shrieks that sounded like Koth's metal hair scraping the tent, but magnified a thousandfold.

"Got any bright ideas?" Venser called over the clamor as he spread his arms. For a moment, I could swear that I saw his eyes flash blue.

"Just one," Koth returned. He had spread his own arms as well, and now his vents were flaring brighter than I had seen them yet, and hotter. It was as if his blood had turned to lava and was now leaking out through his skin. "Take her and run. I will be right behind you."

"What are you doing?" I cried, but I didn't have time to hear Koth's answer, if he had even responded. Venser's hand had grabbed mine and he had set off across the cavern at a dead sprint, dragging me along behind him. For a moment I stumbled, but then the artificer's hand was on my elbow, pulling me up, and we were off again. I didn't know why we were running. I wanted to know, wanted to turn and look back, to see what Koth was doing-

And then a terrible rumbling sounded, like the moving of a mountain, and the ceiling high above our heads began to cave in.

The ground beneath us shook violently as metal came crashing to earth. More than once it threatened to either throw Venser and I or send us tumbling – but miraculously, we both managed to keep our balance, even as thick and choking dust began to swirl about us from behind. I felt hundreds of little pinpricks from the sharp bits of debris that struck my back as we fled.

"Koth!" Venser screamed suddenly, and then he was turning, facing the avalanche, and reaching out his other arm even as he continued running forward.

A metal-streaked hand reached out in turn to seize it, and then the crumbling world around us began to spin away.

A second later, we were collapsing onto the floor in a heap before another flesh wall.

It took a few long moments for us to catch our breath, and to sit up and regain our bearings. Venser was the first to rise. He leaned against the wall behind him, still panting, and brought to life another blue wisp so that we could see where we were. Nothing much different from before, save that the ceiling was directly above our heads…and not in pieces all around us.

"Well, that's one way to get rid of them," I muttered as I struggled to my feet. Venser held out a hand to help me up, and I took it.

Koth merely shrugged as he, too, rose. I marveled at the fact that he didn't have a single scratch on him – or at least, not any that I could see. "It worked, did it not?"

"We're here," Venser interrupted then, quietly. As I had been inspecting Koth, the artificer had turned to examine the flesh wall behind him, and even in the dim blue light I could see where it was (_ugh_) quavering beneath his touch. The outline of a vaguely oval-shaped door had formed, and there was a faint light poking through the unbroken seam – red, like the ever-present glow back in the refugee camp.

There was no noise from the other side of the door. I had been expecting screaming, or Phyrexian shrieking, or the whirring of the terrible machines that Vincenius had said they used on their captives to _change _them…But no. Nothing. Nothing, save an utter, eerie, almost palpable silence.

Venser and I shared an uneasy look, and even Koth shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Nowhere to go but ahead," Venser whispered, and his palm on the door suddenly flashed a bright blue. There was a wet sound, a disgusting sound, and then the flesh wall retracted into the ceiling, leaving the doorway open before us.

When I saw what lay beyond it, I fell to my knees in horror. Venser drew in a sharp breath as he staggered backward, and Koth gave an outraged cry.

The room, illuminated entirely by that red light, was surrounded on all sides by flesh walls and bare save for a single long table in the center – an operating table, made of gleaming silver metal. On that table lay a figure…Human. Female. Long, thick black hair, splayed all about her to drape over the sides like a mourner's veil. It was beautiful hair. I remembered as a child that I had several times asked my mother if I could trade my sister for her hair, because it was so dark and shiny and _smooth_ and so different from mine, from my bird's nest that was always tangled and strewn with leaves and dirt, and that never fell the way I wanted it to no matter how hard I tried. My mother had always responded by telling me that I would come to love my own hair in time, that it made me look like my father, that it was unique and perfect just the way it was. It had taken me years to believe her.

Now as I stared at this woman with my sister's hair, I saw that every inch of her skin was flayed open and pinned to the sheet beneath her.

I could see her muscle. In some places, I could see her bone. I could see bits of her organs, too – her heart, wet and still beating; her lungs, still rising and falling in a steady rhythm.

I bent close over my knees and retched.

"Ahhh," came a voice – no, _two _voices, speaking as one. Part of it was the soft breath of a woman's whisper, of seduction, and the other part of it was a deep and monstrous growl that I could only imagine emanating from the mouth of a hell itself. It chilled me to my core, and even in my state of shock and revulsion, I couldn't help but lift my head to face it.

"The little cockroach has returned," it continued, "and this time he brings guests!" There was a shadow of movement from the other side of the room, but my eyes were too blurred with tears to see clearly what it was. All I knew was that it was large. And that I was afraid. "So…will either of you have any more reason than he?"

"This is an _ABOMINATION_!" Koth roared in response. "I will CRUSH you where you stand, Sheoldred!"

"Koth, no-!" Venser cried, but too late. From behind me, the room was suddenly lit with the blaze of the vulshok's vents, and a wave of heat washed over me. It burned away all the tears in my eyes, and after a moment of frenetic blinking, I realized that I could see.

Immediately, though, I wished that I couldn't.

Standing above Elspeth, holding a wickedly sharp scalpel to her closed eye, was the head and torso of a woman, clad in silver armor over bare muscle. She had a great, black horned helmet obscuring everything from her eyes on up, and the fingernails that I could only call claws were dripping with some dark substance – blood, it must have been. Or oil. Or both. The way she was smiling at me – _me_! – flashing her hideously serrated teeth, sent my heart dropping all the way to my toes.

Then I saw what her torso was attached to, and it was all I could do not to scream.

A gaping, equally toothy maw that was nearly the length of the operating table balanced on four legs covered from tip to joint in blades. From the look of them, I guessed that unbent they would stretch higher than Koth, Venser, and I all standing on one another's shoulders. The woman seemed to meld into it all seamlessly…like she belonged there, like she had been born that way. Perhaps she _had_ been.

"Leash the vulshok," she snarled, "before I slay this one."

"Koth," Venser said again. His voice was hushed, anxious. "_Please_."

Reluctantly, Koth lowered his upraised arms and allowed the furious glow emanating from him to die down to embers. He refused to take his eyes from Sheoldred, though, and as he stood I could see him begin to shake. Whether it was with fury or with effort, I didn't know.

"Now," the monstrosity whispered, and with a feeling of the utmost dread I just _knew _that she was speaking to me. "_You_. You are neither a servant of the Father of Machines, nor one of those natives who have derided our Great Work." She spoke the word 'natives' as if it were a vulgarity. "So tell me, child – Where are you from? Do not be afraid to speak the truth. This need not end in violence."

Venser whirled to look at me, and I could see the wild desperation in his eyes. He was afraid, too. For some sick reason, that comforted me – perhaps because it made me feel just a little less alone. At least, that was what I hoped.

"I…" I managed to choke out. My voice was like rocks scraping together, rough and hoarse. "I am not from here. My home knows of no such horrors as…as this." I tried to avoid looking at Elspeth as I spoke, but it was useless. Her violated body drew my eyes like a flame draws moths, and when I did look at her I felt a sudden swell of _something _inside of me that took a moment to recognize. Disbelief. Anger. Rage. _Hate_. Black hate, black as night, black as the void, so black that I felt like I was drowning in darkness-

_Please don't, please, please don't touch her, don't, no, don't hurt her, anything but that, please, __**please**__…_

"Ah, I see. So you are one of the unenlightened, then." Sheoldred let her scalpel fall lazily to the floor with a clatter, and she took a few steps closer to me. Her blades clacked against the hot metal as she moved. I felt sick.

_What are you doing? No…no! Stop it! Please! Let her go, she didn't do anything to you, let her go!_

"You are the same as those who once dwelt in our New Phyrexia. The very same…But child, you see, this is progress - This is the path of _ascension_!" Sheoldred's voice rose in an almost fanatic exultation, but even louder than that I could hear my own blood pounding in my ears – incessantly. Unmercifully.

_Don't hurt her! Don't hurt her, stop it, no…no, __**NO! STOP IT! **_

"We are continuing the Great Work of our beloved Father of Machines!"

_Long, thick black hair, splayed all about her…_

"All Will Be One!"

…_and beneath it, blood, soaking into every strand._

_She's dead…she's dead, she's dead, you __**killed**__ her, __**SHE'S DEAD**__!_

"_AMITA_!" I screamed, and before I knew what was happening I was unleashing a torrent of magic, like water from a burst dam.

There was a shriek as Sheoldred was thrown, and instantly, even as I felt myself being pulled to my feet by a force I couldn't see, both Koth and Venser sprang into action. Koth lurched forward, shouting like a man half-crazed in a language I didn't understand. His entire body glowed as if it itself were aflame, and he threw himself atop the Phyrexian's struggling body to pummel her with a flurry of blows. Venser shot a brief glance back at me, but before I could catch his expression he was spreading his arms wide and bowing his head. Blue light danced across his hands to his fingertips, and then a strange creature was simply _there_ in front of him, pulled from the aether, long and lean and blade-beaked and with a tail that coiled about its head like a spiked whip.

"No better way to kill bizarre genetic mutants than with bizarre genetic mutants," he muttered under his breath, in a strained almost-laugh. With a flick of his wrist, the creature launched itself into the air and toward Sheoldred. "Take this, freak!"

Sheoldred shrieked even louder as the blow connected, and I could see her torso-mouth snapping at Koth as he continued to wrestle her, aiming his punches at her exposed throat whenever he could. I took the moment to summon a creature of my own – the little tangle of vines that I knew so well, that had never failed me. I was still reeling, and even as I felt my adrenaline begin to take hold, it was all I had the concentration to call upon.

But then Sheoldred let out a cry, and in one powerful swipe she had shoved Koth off of her and sent him rolling hard into the wall. "Shortsighted _fools_!" In an instant she was on her feet again. Though her eyes were hidden, I could feel their gaze boring into me like molten lead. She waved her hand in my direction, and before I could react there was a cloud of thick smoke covering my creature, choking it, turning it back into the aether from which it had formed. A jolt of fear ran down my spine. "All the worlds could know _peace_ if the Great Work was completed, but no – You have to _fight_ it! You have to stand in our way, time and again! _YOU_ are the ones who fight what we bring, the beauty and the completion that we so kindly offer you! _YOU_ are the ones who are dooming your own people by continuing to wage your pointless '_rebellion_s,' which do nothing but slaughter the suns that would burn brightest within our ranks!" Her entire body was wreathed in an aura of hissing black mist now, and suddenly the room felt very cold. Venser took a step backward, bumping into me by accident, and when his arm brushed mine I could feel it trembling.

But Koth was on his feet again too. His gaze was livid as it held the Phyrexian unwaveringly, and I knew right then that she was in for it. "Taint and corruption," he spat. Blood was dripping from the corners of his mouth, and he reached up with his palm to wipe it away. "Taint and corruption, _everywhere_, that is all you bring. I will tolerate your delusions no longer!"

The metal floor beneath Sheoldred suddenly stabbed up and into her, drawing a gasp as it pierced the jaw of the torso-mouth. Her aura began to fade as she lost her concentration, and almost reflexively, I reacted by calling upon the strongest creature that I knew. Venser, beside me, was yelling at his blade-beak that had so neatly dodged Sheoldred's swipe to go back and aim for her throat. It did, and it connected, just as the looming treefolk that I had summoned in my first battle alongside Vincenius burst forth from the ground to land a perfect uppercut right into her gut.

Even in her pain, though, Sheoldred was not about to give up. She let out a wordless shriek that sprayed bloody black spittle into the air, and thrust her hands toward Venser, who immediately collapsed to his knees and screamed. I ran to him. He was groaning now, clutching his head in both hands, even as Sheoldred skittered past Koth and advanced on him with claws extended. I felt my heart drum hard against my ribcage. It reminded me suddenly of Elspeth, and her exposed organs…

"Protect us!" I cried.

And in an instant, my tree was on her, holding her back. She growled and snarled and struggled against the grip that its thick branches had twined around her, but to no avail. She had been weakened too much by our attacks to free herself quickly.

It would buy us time, but only a moment.

A moment, however, was all we would need.

When I turned to Koth, I could see him crouched low to the ground, chanting something over and over under his breath in that same, foreign language. His eyes were beginning to glow red, and to pulse in time with his vents. When I turned to Venser, he was recovering from his momentary incapacitation, shaking his head and closing his eyes in an effort to concentrate.

My weakness hit me in a rush then. I nearly let out a gasp at the sensation of it, at the way my legs wobbled and threatened to buckle beneath me. I had expended so much mana without barely even a pause, and now it was all catching up to me at once. But yet…

I could feel that I still had enough left in me for one more spell. One more…just one. If it didn't work, then I had only my tree for protection until it was defeated, and then I would be completely useless for the rest of the battle. I would be at the mercy of my companions' strength, and Sheoldred's, and my own athletic skills – which didn't amount to much, in a place like this with no trees to climb.

But if it _did _work…

I heard Venser's wordless shout and the screech of his creature as it came diving down on Sheoldred's head, heard her own screech in response as she clawed and bit at it even as my tree still held her fast.

Then I saw the aura of black mist growing around her once more, and I knew that it was now or never.

I let loose with everything I had left. There was an explosion of purple light.

Sheoldred screamed.

My head spun as the mana left me, and I could do nothing to stop myself from falling to my knees for a second time. I felt limp, almost boneless. I could hear a loud ringing in my ears, too, for whatever reason, but it was not loud enough to block out what I heard next – a roaring cry that lifted my spirits and sent them aloft. I looked up, just in time.

"FOR MIRRODIN!"

Koth stood, towering over Sheoldred as she lay toppled on the floor beside my tree. His arms were raised to the ceiling, and a heady mixture of bloodlust and triumph twisted his weathered face.

My tree suddenly reached out both arms to grab Venser and I and pull us beneath it, beneath the operating table and Elspeth, and then boulder-sized chunks of metal came raining down from the ceiling in a tremendous cacophony.

Sheoldred let out an unearthly wail each time one of them hit their intended mark. Like before, when Venser and I had been running, I felt little razorlike shards pelt me from all directions, though my tree blocked the worst of it. I covered my ears with my hands, and beside me Venser did the same. The amount of noise in the room was almost too much to bear.

After a minute that seemed more like an hour, the Phyrexian finally fell silent.

Koth let his hands drop to his sides. The second he did, the deluge stopped, and my tree allowed its battered form to fade away back into the aether. Venser and Elspeth and I had been nearly completely untouched by the attack – and for that, I said a silent prayer of thanks to the spirits. The last thing we would have needed was for Koth to defeat the Phyrexian at last, but then accidentally kill us all in the process.

Jace was right. Good-intentioned as he may be, the vulshok was indeed a rather careless individual.

As I forced myself to my feet and stumbled into a corner of the operating table, I noticed the new hole in the ceiling, and the clawed hand that poked out from the towering pile of rubble below. It just…lay there, unmoving.

"Ranewen, are you alright?"

The sound of my own name startled me. It was Venser's voice, right at my side. He sounded worried. "Did you get hit in the head? You look like you're about to topple over."

" 'M fine," I muttered, ignoring the artificer and turning my attention instead to the mutilated woman on the table before me. Elspeth. Elspeth the planeswalker. Just like me. And black hair, just like my sister. Like Amita. My vision swam. "We have to…heal her. Someone help me, hold her skin back in place…"

I was vaguely aware of Koth coming up close and looking over my shoulder, then turning his head away. When I caught a glance, I saw that his face was pale. "I know nothing of this," he said quietly. There was something almost like a stammer in his voice, which I hadn't expected from him. "Venser, you are the one whom Vincenius is training. You help."

Venser was pale too, but he didn't shy away from the table. "I…alright." I heard him swallow hard, and then he reached out to place a tentative hand on a flap of skin that hung loose from her shoulder. His arm jerked. Still though, he kept his hand where it was. "Are you sure you can do this, Ranewen?" he asked after a moment. His voice was strained, but soft. It sounded like an echo inside my skull. "You don't look well at all."

"Neither do you," I retorted, meaning to imply that he looked pale but instead worrying whether it had come out sounding more like an insult…but then, it didn't matter. Elspeth was what mattered. Elspeth. She was _all _that mattered. I was the only one here that could save her.

I wished that I had thought beyond the battle when I had cast that spell. I wished that I had left myself with more mana, to make what I was about to do easier. But at the time, I hadn't anticipated myself surviving – and if I hadn't cast the spell to stop Sheoldred from casting her own, perhaps I wouldn't have. So I supposed I couldn't blame myself…not really.

_I have to do what I have to do_, I thought. _No matter what the cost._

After ten minutes of us working together, and as quickly as we could, Venser's careful hand and my healing magic had sewn Elspeth's skin back into place all over her body. She needed further help, though – much more than what I could give her. She needed Vincenius. And soon. That was the sole thought that my mind was able to grasp at that point, since everything else just faded away in a blur as darkness crept up into the edges of my vision and I felt myself sliding, falling limply into the operating table.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Sheoldred's hand no longer poked out from the pile of metal. But a second later, even the remembrance of the thought vanished, and I was left wondering desperately how Elspeth was going to get back to Vincenius in time. I felt so dizzy…

Suddenly, there was a loud bang from across the room. It sounded miles away to me.

"Looks like we've got company," I heard Venser say. Where was he? He sounded so distant too. I couldn't see anymore. Everything was so blurry that I couldn't make anything out.

I heard Phyrexian screeches, and then a different type of screech as metal scraped against metal. There was a grunt.

"I have the passage blocked," Koth called out. "Go, now! It will not hold for long!"

I felt something being lifted from the table as I lay slumped halfway across it, and then there was an odd _pop_. I knew that I had heard that sound before…but for the life of me, I couldn't remember where.

A few seconds later there was another _pop_. It was followed by more screeching and then rattling, and I felt someone wrap an arm around my torso to hold me tight. Whoever it was, they were warm. I was so cold that I was shivering, and the heat felt wonderful.

"Koth!" Venser's voice came again, and this time it sounded as if I were hearing it from underwater. I couldn't hold myself up any longer. I sagged against whoever was holding me, and felt my eyes slide shut.

Then there was a sensation like being pulled apart in two different directions, and it was strangely familiar. The colors behind my closed eyelids bled together until I didn't know what I was looking at anymore, and everything was getting so _dark_…and then, suddenly, there was just nothing at all.


	12. Chapter 12

I awoke to the sound of hushed voices.

For a moment I thought they might be talking about me, but no – As my eyes slid slowly open and found the two mer, I saw that they were standing hunched over something to my left. A bed. Like the one I just now realized I was lying in. I was a little dizzy, but I could still make out the sheets covering me from foot to chin, and the small metal table that stood to one side, with a myriad of glass jars and vials and spirits knew what else. _I must be in Vincenius's clinic._

And indeed I was. There were a few more beds to either side of me, or at least to the right – I couldn't see anything to the left, what with those mer in the way – and individuals of varying races scurried back and forth down the aisle in front of me, each one clad in a white smock overtop whatever else they were wearing. I recognized nearly everything. Vincenius had taken me on a brief tour before our practice battle, and I remembered this place to be the recovery room. There was a carved-metal balcony overlooking the entirety of it, and when I slowly shifted my gaze to look up, groaning at the pain that flared through my neck, I gave a start. Vincenius himself was perched on the ledge, legs dangling over the side as he perused some sort of chart in his hands. When he looked up, his eyes went straight to me. He smiled.

Casually, he let himself slip off and into the air. But instead of falling, and before I could so much as gasp, a pair of immense, finlike _wings _unfolded from his back, and with one graceful stroke they propelled him down to the floor at the foot of my bed. When he stood up straight, they folded themselves back in and just _vanished_. I was left staring at him in utter disbelief.

"Is there anything you _can't _convince your body to do?" I asked. My voice was far too weak for my own liking.

Vincenius chuckled at that. "Nope," he said simply, coming closer to sit on the edge of my bed. His hand reached out to brush my forehead, briefly, and then after a moment he nodded to himself and pulled it away. I assumed that he had been feeling for my temperature. "Six days, 11 hours, and 21 minutes. Small price to pay for what you did, wouldn't you say?"

I reeled. "It's been _that _long?"

Vincenius nodded. "Indeed. I was intending to postpone purging the glistening oil from you until _after_ you had returned from the mission to Ish Sah, but in retrospect…that was probably not the best idea. I had to keep you under for several days after you had already recovered from your shock and exhaustion and whatnot."

"Glistening oil?" I remembered stepping in it, getting it on my arm several times during the trek to Ish Sah, and especially during our time beneath the surface. Strangely, though, I didn't remember it burning like before. "What, so it was…inside me?"

Again Vincenius nodded. He reached underneath my bed to pull out a brown glass jar, and though I couldn't see its contents clearly, I could see that whatever was inside was moving. "It's poison, you remember. It slowly corrupts whatever it touches. After your first exposure, it stops burning because your body begins to take it in, and you are essentially immune to its effects. But it changes you." He unscrewed the lid of the jar, paused, and then screwed it back on again. "That's why I had to get it all out. I did the same with Jace, while you were gone, though it was far quicker for him. I'm just glad I could get to _you_ in time."

"Jace," I whispered. I had almost completely forgotten about him, what with everything else that I had to worry about. "How is he?"

Vincenius shrugged, leaning over to set the jar on the table before looking back to me. "Fine enough. He took Koth's place in the patrols, and helped ward off several Phyrexian attacks. Could use some training, for certain, but…he's a natural fighter. My soldiers breathed easier whenever he was around, and not off taking care of business back in Ravnica, or here checking up on you."

A blush spread across my cheeks, too quickly for me to hide. Vincenius must have noticed. "He didn't need to do that." I remembered how we had parted ways, how I had worried whether or not he would be angry with me when I returned. Now all that worry died away, and was swiftly replaced by a growing warmth in my chest – which, I had to admit, could have just as easily been some odd result of my recovering state, but I chose to dismiss that notion.

Vincenius let out a snort. "That's what _I _told him too. But he's stubborn. He kept on coming, every day that he was free, even when it started to affect his sleep. I finally told him that I would be waking you today, and that I had everything under control and he should go rest for once. Looks like he finally listened."

The thought of Jace, coming to visit me day after day just to ensure that I was alright, made my heart beat faster – But before I could allow myself to dwell in girlish delusions overlong, I gave myself a good hard mental shake. There were other things to be worrying about. Other people. "What about Elspeth?" I asked after a moment. For whatever reason – frailty, perhaps, or fear – the words seemed to stick in my throat, like they were hesitant themselves to come out.

Vincenius smiled then, a sad smile, and I wasn't sure whether that was a good sign or a bad one. "Ah, Ranewen." His voice was quiet, and as he spoke he reached out a hand to place overtop mine. "You didn't act alone, of course, but your bravery has done us all a great service. You saved her life." I felt the most overwhelming sense of relief wash over me, but I barely had time to process it before he continued. "With what the Phyrexians did to her, she would not have survived Venser's teleport. Useful as it may be, it is taxing on those who are already weakened. Thus, had you not been there, to heal her as much as you were able to…she would have died, for certain. And so I thank you."

The mer gestured with his other hand, and when I looked I saw that the two attendants to the left were gone – and that laying atop the bed they had been bent over, was a woman, her long black hair splayed out across her pillow and her bandaged body rising and falling in time with her breathing. There was just the faintest flush of color in her face, and she stirred a little every time there was a loud noise. She was _alive_.

"Elspeth," I breathed. I felt my eyes grow suddenly wet.

Vincenius smiled again, this time a little happier. "I plan on waking her tomorrow, though she will still need a few more days before she can fight with the best of them again. That's the good thing about my treatment – Messy at times, but it _does_ get the job done. Speaking of which…" He reached back over me to pluck the brown jar from the bedside table, and unscrewed the lid again. This time, he plucked out a wriggling, slimy, utterly horrifying_ leech_, nearly as long as my whole hand and apparently just as mobile. I squeaked.

"_What _in the nine hells are you doing with _that_?" I had backed my entire body up against the bed's headboard, and with the sheet kicked off I could now see that I was clad in a clean white nightgown. That didn't really matter at the moment, though. There were _leeches_. Right there. In front of me. _Right_. _There_.

Vincenius cocked an eyebrow. I felt a dawning horror as he suddenly got it and a wicked smile began to creep across his face, ever so slowly, ever so _painfully_. "What, you're not fond of these little fellows?" He held one up for my inspection, _far _too close for comfort. I squeaked again and dove under the sheet. "But they're what I used to drain the oil from you! How can you hate them when they saved you from being turned into a Phyrexian? I even picked out some of my favorites for you!"

I wanted to cry. I wanted to vomit. Forgetting where I was and why I needed to keep my voice down, I threw the sheet off of me and shrieked. "You _let_ those things _suck my blood_?"

"Mostly the oil," Vincenius corrected with a chuckle. _Finally_, he placed the leech back in its jar and screwed the lid on tight, to seal it and all of its villainous little brethren away. "I suppose I'll wait to do Elspeth's treatment until you're safely away from here, since you're so squeamish. And here I had expected better of you…" As he stood, tucked the jar back beneath the bed, and stepped out into the aisle, he threw me a teasing look. _Maddening_. "Now I'll be right back – I'm just going to go get your things, since you're free to leave whenever you wish." He headed out through a nearby door, and then returned a few moments later with two bundles in his arms. He dumped both of them in my lap, since I was now sitting upright and eyeing him warily. I must have looked well enough to him.

When I saw what he had given me, though, I couldn't help but smile. "Wait, this is for me?"

One of the bundles was my own clothes and boots, complete with my hunting knife, all freshly washed and stain-free. But the other…the other was an outfit of glimmering gold, an ornate bra and skirt, with delicate pauldrons and thigh guards that looked as if they would fit like a glove. There were even boots, too – long, knee-length ones, completely unworn and so very beautiful. I could hardly believe my eyes. I had seen many of the humans around the refugee camp wearing similar outfits, but to be holding one in my own hands…

"Of course," Vincenius said. When I looked up at him, I noticed that his smile was genuine this time. "I had a nurse fit you for it while you were sleeping. This plane has five suns and a geothermal furnace – You didn't think I was going to let you walk around in _that _forever, did you?" He gestured toward my hunter's outfit and grinned. "You may have been fine with it on Zendikar or even Ravnica, but the heat out herewould have gotten to you eventually!"

I grinned too, and hefted the weight of the outfit as I took it in my arms. It was surprisingly light. "So what's the catch?"

"No catch. Just get out there and enjoy being alive, while we still have a moment of peace."

To the mer's surprise – and, to some degree, my own – I responded by standing and enfolding him in a warm hug, beaming. My legs didn't shake one bit.

"_That_," I said, "I can do."

* * *

><p>One wardrobe change and two hours later, I was out wandering the streets of the refugee camp.<p>

I was trying my best not to look _too _lost, but I was also pretty sure that my efforts were in vain. _I just passed that square, didn't I? Oh, damn it…_

Finding Venser's workshop was proving to be more difficult than I had anticipated. Vincenius had told me that the artificer had also been inquiring about my health while I was unconscious, and that since Koth was on patrol and Jace was (finally) sleeping, I should go drop by, tell him I'm doing alright. I had agreed. Venser had helped out Koth and I greatly on our mission, and he hadn't been unkind in the least. Besides, if he was to be one of our new companions, well…I figured that it would be a good idea to learn more about him. Vincenius had given me some vague directions, and then off I went.

_I'm pretty sure the place is right around this corner… _

When I rounded the precarious stack of apartments, I was surprised to find myself standing right across the street from our tent. The carved and polished building I had noticed on the first day we had come here was just a few steps away, and at once I realized that _it_ must be Venser's workshop. _Of course. He's an artificer, isn't he? Why __**wouldn't**__ he take the time to make his place look nice?_ For a moment I was sorely tempted to make a brief stop at the tent, but…no. I pushed the thought out of my head. _I can see Jace later. Right now, he needs to rest. _For another moment I marveled at the irony of the structures' proximity, and then I began to head across the adjacent street and over to Venser's huge front doors.

They were cracked open when I reached them. From inside, there was a tremendous racket of buzzing and whirring, and intermittently the grinding screech of metal on metal. Cautiously, I peered inside.

The whole place was just one large room, covered in shelves and tables and tools and bottles and rags and huge, hulking pieces of machinery that gleamed, having been polished until they looked brand new. Venser himself was at the back. He was standing on his tiptoes in front of one of those machines, facing away from the entrance and me. The machine he was working on was spiderlike, with many legs poking out from the glass tank that served as its body, and _spirits_ was it tall! Inside the tank hung what looked like just a plain old sphere, of dull metal – But from the way it floated in midair, unaided by anything I could see, I assumed that there was more to it than met the eye. From the way sparks were flying from the metal around Venser's hand – and from the noises – I also assumed that he must be grinding the metal smooth. Either that, or doing something too technical for me to already know about. I took a tiny step forward and pulled the door shut behind me.

"What's that you're working on?" My voice was just barely audible over everything, but still he turned. The second he did, all the noise stopped.

"Windgrace's whiskers!" He set down the tool in his hand and leaned back against the machine, pushing the protective goggles he wore up onto his forehead. He smiled. "The sleeping beauty wakes. I was wondering when Doc would be finished with you!"

The artificer's tone was so jovial that I couldn't help but smile back. Coming closer, I hopped up to sit on an empty table across from him. "Just this morning." As I moved, my gold outfit clinked together softly. "I thought I'd stop by, since I have a bit of time on my hands."

Venser chuckled. One of his hands wiped away the sweat gathering on his brow, leaving behind a little smudge of grease. He noticed and wiped at that too. "Well, I'm happy to have you. I haven't had company in, uh…well, _ever_, to be honest." Washed clean of the blood and oil and grime that had completely covered him in Ish Sah, I could now take a good look – He was a little taller than Jace, and a little more built. His lean face appeared as if it hadn't been shaved in a couple of days, but he wore the look well, and the way his eyes – a deep, rich brown – smiled down at me more than made up for any dishevelment his profession caused. He tried to push his mess of brown hair flat to his scalp, but it stubbornly refused and continued to stick out instead. He sighed. "Sorry that last jump of mine shocked your system so much, by the way. There really wasn't anything I could do to prevent it, but…I still feel bad."

I shook my head insistently. "No, no! Don't apologize! _I _should be the one thanking _you_ – You saved my life back there!" I smiled again, awkwardly. _Typical_. "So, um…thank you, Venser!"

He cocked an eyebrow in return, and the machine behind him _bowed_ – or at least, as much as the enormous spiderlike contraption could manage. "You're very welcome. And thank _you _for saving Elspeth. She wouldn't have survived the jump without your help." He had a mischievous gleam in his eyes now, and I couldn't stop myself from grinning in amazement.

"How did you make it do that?"

He turned to pat the machine, affectionately. "It's a Phyrexian machine – a psychosis crawler. I scavenged it from one of the battles awhile back. It's supposed to be full of brains, but since that's a little too…_Phyrexian_ for me, I've retrofitted it with a device that allows me to control it with my mind instead." As if to prove his point, the crawler clicked and whirred and waved one of its slender legs at me. Venser grinned. I giggled.

_Simple terms_, I found myself noting. _He talks like a teacher. _"That's fascinating!" I slid off of the table and onto the floor, then came to stand next to Venser so I could get a better look at the crawler.

The artificer gave it another pat before turning to face me. "Sometimes it interprets other people's thoughts besides mine, or thoughts that aren't meant to be orders, but I'm sure I'll figure out how to fix it soon enough. I don't really have any other projects on my to-do list."

Suddenly, I felt a childlike curiosity overcome me, and I turned to Venser. My hands were clasped together in front of my imploring grin. "Oh, could I try? Pretty please?"

Venser seemed to be genuinely taken aback by my request – I could see it on his face, in the way his eyes went wide and his jaw momentarily slack. "Wait, you're…" He paused. "You're serious? You're really that interested?"

I nodded eagerly. "Yes, of course! I've never seen anything like it!"

All he could do was shake his head – in disbelief, I guessed. After a moment though, a slow smile began to spread across his face, and he regarded me with an expression that made it seem as if he were really _seeing_ me for the first time. "Huh. Well, it's nice to know _someone_ appreciates my work – Koth and Elspeth want me to smash everything I see, and everyone else here just seems scared. It's a nice change of pace." His smile grew warm. "Luckily Doc sees the value in understanding your enemy, otherwise this little place of mine would be shut down, and I'd have to walk to Urborg any time I wanted to get work done."

I put aside my interest in the crawler, for the moment. "Is that where you're from?"

Venser nodded. "Yep. A lovely little corner of Dominaria where there's nothing but swamp, swamp, and, ah…_more _swamp as far as the eye can see. And that's just _my_ neck of the woods." He leaned his head back against the crawler again and sighed. "Even though Koth dragged me here against my will, I've grown fond of the place. I'd like to stay here – Not just because I'm not up to my knees in muck constantly, but because I want to protect it. I've seen enough Phyrexian corruption back home. I don't want to see it here too." He snorted. "Though I have to admit, it's a little late for that wish." There was a short moment of silence, and then he turned just his head to me, a questioning smile on his handsome face. "If I may ask, m'lady – What about you? Where are you from?"

Though it was endearing – and a little flattering – I had to shake my head and laugh. "Oh no. I'm no lady, Venser. I'm _way _too rough and tumble for that. You haven't seen me hunting the baloths back on Zendikar."

The artificer laughed too, a sound that was just as infectious as I had first found his smile. "Fine then. If you insist." He stroked his chin, pretending to look deep in thought. "So…Ranewen? But that sounds too formal. Do you have a nickname you prefer?"

I found myself grinning again. "Rana."

"Rana." He tried the word, and then must have decided that he liked the way it tasted on his tongue, because he smiled approvingly. "So, Rana, tell me about…you said Zendikar, right? That's the same place Doc said he's from."

I nodded, and finally decided that it was safe to lean against the crawler beside him. I was sure my extra weight wouldn't be enough to tip it over…or break anything. "I don't know exactly where _he's_ from, but it's certainly not where I grew up. Merfolk don't spend much time all the way up in the jaddi-trees. They don't have the climbing implements we do, or the good balance. They'd fall and break their necks in ten seconds flat." I chuckled softly. "Though maybe _he _might last a bit longer. _He _has wings. I'd give him an extra minute."

Venser nearly choked on his sudden laughter, but in an instant he had composed himself. His grin was even wider than mine had been, once he had caught his breath. "I would tell you not to underestimate the great Vincenius, but I swear that mer has ears everywhere. He'd cuff me over the head next time I stopped by for an alchemy lesson, just for a bit of sarcasm."

I giggled. "I highly doubt that."

In response, Venser gave a short shrug. "Who knows? _I_ sure don't. All I know is that he's a great leader, and great leaders have great spies." He eyed me with mock suspicion, raising his brow. "In fact, I could be talking to one right now."

I giggled again, and gave him a playful swat on the arm. "Oh, stop that. I'd be a horrible spy. I'm no good at stealth, or keeping a straight face."

Venser laughed. He then pretended to rub the hurt out of where I had hit him. I had been wavering on the thought for some time now, but in that instant I finally decided that I liked him – At the very least, he was much more fun to talk to than Koth. "Well then, why _are _you and the dour knight here on Mirrodin, seeking us out, if you don't have some hidden agenda? Doc never got around to telling me."

_The __**dour knight**__. _This time,_ I _was the one who nearly choked. "It's…complicated." Once I had suppressed the bout of laughter that was bubbling up in my chest, I sighed, and shook my head. "You really want me to tell the whole story right now? It's…kinda long. And not very happy. It involves giant creatures that destroy everything, and then eat what's left of the plane afterward."

But as soon as the word "destroy" escaped my lips, the crawler behind us jerked. Venser and I pulled away quickly enough, but suddenly there was a terrible grating sound, like a thousand Koths scraping against a thousand tents, and it was so loud and overwhelming that I staggered backward into the empty table. My hands flew up to cover my ears.

"Ah!" Venser cried. "_Shit_! Sorry, sorry!"

I saw him reach out a hand that flashed blue, and then the sphere disappeared from the crawler's glass tank and reappeared a second later in his open palm. He closed his fist around it, and at once, as quickly as it had started, the noise stopped. The artificer turned to me with an apologetic look.

"Guess I might want to fix it sooner rather than later, huh?"

I was a little shaken, but otherwise fine. My breath came out in a nervous laugh. "I see _that's_ what you meant."

Venser nodded before setting the sphere down on the nearby workbench, beside his grinding tool. "Yeah." He smiled thinly when he turned back to me, and ran a few fingers through his hair. It only served to mess it up more. "Science isn't always pleasant, especially when it comes to Phyrexian technology. I mean, it all has a tendency to self-destruct, for one thing." He shrugged. "But I've been studying the stuff my entire life, so I guess I'm used to it. Or at least, more so than most people. I don't think there's a person alive who could ever get completely jaded to anything Phyrexian. Except the Phyrexians themselves." His voice suddenly took on a faraway tone, even as his eyes glazed over - and in that instant I realized that he was staring right through me, thinking of someplace else, perhaps some_time_ else. "I'll be the first to admit that the means are horrible, but the _wonders_ of those devices…amazing. I've been able to make great things out of them before."

His mixed emotions of nostalgia and awe struck a chord in me, and I smiled. "Well, the way I see it, things can do either good or bad depending on the hands they're placed in. That's how the whole world works. Or at least that's what _I_ think."

He smiled too, slightly, but I could see that his eyes were still unfocused. For a moment, a hint of anger flashed across his face. "Koth thinks that ambulators will 'destroy the delicate balance of the planes.'" He scoffed. "He doesn't get it. I just want to give other people the opportunity to experience what we do, to travel from plane to plane and see new things. Is that really so bad?"

I didn't answer his question. "…Ambulators?"

"Planeswalking devices." His voice was suddenly soft. "I made my first one before my spark ignited."

The way he spoke, it almost sounded as if he were recalling a long-dead lover. I found myself at once both sympathetic, and curious. "In that case, it sounds to me like Koth is just being narrow-minded. So long as they don't fall into the wrong hands, what's the problem? They sound like they would be really useful."

"That's the thing," Venser muttered, and he slumped wearily against the unmoving crawler. "The Phyrexians _have_ them already. That's how they got to Mirrodin in the first place."

_Well, __**that**__ explains it. I was wondering how they traveled. _I leaned back again too, next to him. "But that doesn't make any sense." I furrowed my brow in confusion. "Why wouldn't Koth want the good guys to have access to the technology too? That would level the field. It's not fair otherwise."

Venser threw up his hands in exasperation, and let out a sound that was half-laugh, half-sigh. "Who knows? I'm half-convinced the man's cracked, really. One minute he's calm as a statue, and then the next he's in an unstoppable blood frenzy. Maybe that's what the heat here does to you, if you stay out in it too long." Finally he smiled again, and allowed it to engulf his entire face as he lost himself in his thoughts once more. Happy thoughts this time. "It gets me excited, just thinking about what we could do if I could build even just one more ambulator. Imagine if Vincenius could bring his entire merfolk army to fight with us – or if Elspeth could take her people to a new home, far away from Grixis's horrors!"

His mention of Elspeth was like a needle in my heart. Suddenly, I felt sad. "Or if I could take my tribe somewhere else," I whispered, though I hadn't meant to. My gaze was on the floor, on the toes of my new gold boots. "Somewhere safe."

To my surprise, instead of getting a slew of questions in response to my unbidden outburst, I felt a hand rest itself on my arm. When I looked up, I saw Venser smiling down at me, kindly. There was just as much warmth in his gaze as there was in his touch. "If I _do _build one," he said then, "you'll be the first person I tell."

I gave a start at that. His words were so much more of a surprise than his gesture had been that I found myself laughing, out of nothing more than disbelief. "Now _that_ can't be true." Even so, I couldn't help but smile. "I just met you, Venser! You _do_ know that you don't have to be nice to me, right?"

Venser chuckled, though at the same time his gaze seemed to…deepen, almost. I realized with another start that he looked utterly serious. "And _you've_ shown far more interest in my work than anyone has in centuries. No joke. I do believe, Rana, that I'm allowed to take that into account."

I was at a loss for words. All I could think to do was smile more…and so I did. "Well, um…thank you. I appreciate it."

The artificer smiled back, and in one fluid motion he had pushed himself off of the crawler and turned to a rack of shelves on the other side of his workbench. He began to rummage through their contents, pushing aside large bags and racks of glass vials in his search for…whatever he was searching for. I took a step closer. "Need any help?"

"I'm looking for grain," he answered. His voice was muffled on account of his head being buried nearly two feet deep in cluttered shelf. He was leaning forward, stretching to see if his object of interest had perhaps fallen behind the structure of the rack – but unfortunately, it looked liked it hadn't. "I brought a couple sacks in from Dominaria a few days ago, was thinking of getting some food…"

"Grain?" The word was unfamiliar to me.

Finally Venser pulled back, and when he had extracted himself from the tangle of metal enough to stand straight, he let out his breath in a huff and turned to fix me with a puzzled look. "You know…for making bread."

I chuckled and shook my head. "I've never heard of either of those things before. We must not have them back on Zendikar."

There was a moment's pause, and then he burst out laughing. Loudly. "You're serious! Oh, wow…I guess it makes sense, though. Vincenius said it's hard to grow anything there with that Roil phenomenon." He grinned then, and leaned in to me with his hands on his hips. "You _have_ to try it. It's really good if you make it right."

I acknowledged that my stomach _was _growling – quietly, to my good fortune, but I still felt like I hadn't eaten in days. With the length of my forced unconsciousness, perhaps I hadn't. "Alright," I agreed, folding my arms over my chest. "I guess I'll have to trust you on this one." I felt the corners of my lips twitch before turning up in a grin to match his. "What is it, anyway?"

Venser reached out a hand to me. "Here. I'll show you."

I knew what he was intending by offering the extended limb, but I decided to tease him anyway. For the first time in weeks, I was feeling back to my usual self again. Joking. _Cheerful_. "What, is there some sort of ritual we have to do before we can make it? I wasn't aware that Dominarian cooking required that much effort."

The artificer snorted. "Yes, Rana, I need a human sacrifice before I can even mix the ingredients together. Now come on. Let's go, before Doc bursts in here with some odd job for me to do."

Giggling at his failed attempt to keep a straight face – and mine – I finally took his hand, and the vaguely organized clutter of Venser's workshop blurred around me as we teleported away.

* * *

><p>Making bread was a far more daunting task than I had anticipated.<p>

You had to crush that grain substance into dust, then mix it together with another powder and water until it was a paste, and _then_ knead the paste into a squishy, pliable consistency before finally baking it in a little slot over a fire. By the time the last step had been accomplished, my arms were sore and I was thoroughly covered in a layer of the grain-dust – the sight of which had sent Venser doubling over his knees with laughter, when I had accidentally spilled it all over myself. I had not been so amused. I thought it was going to stick to me forever, and to the shiny metal surface of his counter. Fortunately, though, it seemed as if a wet cloth sufficed to get it all off. After that point, I had laughed right along with him.

The entire time that the two of us had been working, I recounted the story of what had happened to me ever since I had started this interesting journey of mine – from my first encounter with Sorin, all the way up to the moment that I met Venser in the Mephidross. He had listened attentively, smiling and joking and asking questions every now and then, when they were called for. He even asked a little more about my life in Zendikar, too. I had obliged each of his requests, and in turn asked him about _his_ life back in the swamps of Urborg – though he, unlike me, didn't have much to say. His mother had passed away when he was young, and his father had disappeared into the swamps, never to return, a few years after that, leaving little Venser all alone to fend for himself. "_That_," he had said with a roguish grin, upon seeing my sympathetic expression, "is how I learned how to cook. No motivator quite like death by starvation staring you in the face!"

His good humor hadn't faded in the least since the time I had first walked into his workshop. In fact, the longer the day wore on, the brighter his mood seemed to get. By the time the bread was ready to eat, and we both sat down at his tiny little table in his crowded little kitchen in his cramped little flat, he was positively beaming. I found myself realizing that if _I_ hadn't had a friendly visitor in awhile – let alone _years_, as he had said – I would probably be acting the same way. Not as if I begrudged him his behavior. In truth, I found it endearing, just as much so as when he had called me 'm'lady.'

"So what do you think?" he asked now, fixing me with an expectant smile. I had just taken my first bite into the little piece of bread I had cut for myself.

I chewed, and chewed, and then finally I swallowed, and when I did I could almost _feel_ my eyes light up. "Spirits, you're right! That _does_ taste good!" I stared down at what remained of the slice in my hands, unable to stop myself from letting out a short laugh of wonderment. "That's such a shame, that we can't grow these grain crops of yours on Zendikar. I could have packed this for my hikes, or for when I went hunting out of range! It's the perfect size, even!"

The expression on my face – or the tone of my voice, or both – must have been amusing to him, because Venser chuckled. "This is why planeswalking is so wonderful," he said, simply. "_Every_ world has something new to experience."

I grinned, and rested my chin in my hands before giving him a conspiratorial wink. I took another bite. "Well," I said, once the food was safely down my throat, "you've got me convinced. We'll just have to keep it from Koth then, won't we?"

Venser laughed heartily at that. His brown eyes were alight, even from all the way across the table. "I have to say, Rana, I like your thinking."

"Good! It's about time I found someone I can actually talk to. I thought I wasn't going to find a single person on one of these planes who isn't either broody, crazy, or in danger of lighting me on fire whenever we hit a touchy topic." I giggled, and took a sip of the gel fruit wine that seemed to be the drink of choice here on Mirrodin. It was so sweet that I could barely taste the alcohol.

Venser shrugged. He gave me an easy smile in turn as he, too, took a drink from his own glass, and when he was finished he set it back down lightly. "I'm always here if you need me." For a moment he paused, and when he looked back up at me again his smile had broadened into the warm, buoyant grin that I had come to know in so short a time. "Especially considering your other options."

The thought that I now had a friend I could come to gave me comfort, more so than I would have expected before today's events. "Thank you, Venser. Really." The haze of the wine – which we had both been drinking all evening – was starting to hit me at last, but I kept my smile steady as I looked at him and felt a sudden rush of gratitude.

The artificer wasn't one to miss details, though. He chuckled. "You're swaying a little, you know. Not practiced at holding your alcohol?"

I laughed. It was a little embarrassing that he had noticed, but I wasn't going to let it bother me. "I'll be fine, I swear! I've barely even touched my food. I'm sure I'll be better after I get a little bit of it in me."

"We've been here all evening," Venser reminded me, gently, "and you're going to find that that particular type of wine makes you pretty tired once its effects set in. Why don't you take the rest of your bread, I'll take you back to your tent, and you can stop by tomorrow if you still want? Here, I'll even save some for you so we could try this again then."

I had to admit that he _was _right – I was starting to feel strangely sleepy, and at once I remembered having the same experience after eating my first gel fruit on Koth and my trek to Ish Sah. With the wine's alcohol, though, the effect was more potent this time. "Fine," I relented, "I guess. But only if you _promise _that we get a do-over."

Venser smiled. He reached over across the table, and put his hand on my forearm, firmly. "Not a do-over," he said, "just another try." There was a faint flush on his face that I attributed to the impending effects of his wine, and I wondered vaguely if I had it too, if that was what had keyed him in to my state of not-so-sobriety. "I'll, ah…I'll see you around, Rana."

And before I could say anything in response, I was spinning and spinning and getting suddenly dizzy, and Venser's desk and stacks of papers and trinkets in the background were disappearing, and then I was just _elsewhere_, in my tent…alone. Even Jace was gone.

Still holding my bread – though my hunger was all but forgotten in the wake of my sudden exhaustion (or had it been there this whole time?) – I pulled off my gold garb as carefully as I could, curled into my bedroll with the sheet tight around me, and then allowed myself to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

"Ranewen?"

Though it took a good deal of effort, my eyes finally slid open.

Jace was kneeling on his bedroll beside me, a piece of parchment between his fingers and an odd expression on his face. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at me. "You, ah…alright there?"

As I sat up, I frowned. I was too tired still to be all aflutter, and _damn everything to the nine hells_, my head was _pounding_! I reached up to rub my fingers against my temples, but somehow that only seemed to make things worse. "What do you mean?"

To my surprise, Jace's response was for a faint blush to color his cheeks, and then to sigh and turn his head. He stared fixedly at the parchment in his hand as he held it out to one side, and when he spoke, he sounded almost…embarrassed. "Apparently, you're not decent at the moment."

"Huh?" When I looked down, all the fog in my head evaporated in an instant – The sheet I had wrapped around myself when I went to bed last night was slowly slipping down, exposing the top of my bare chest. I let out a little squeak and pulled it back into place before I accidentally showed off anything improper. My face burned. "Uh…sorry. I was too tired to change into anything before I went to sleep."

Jace shook his head, but I could see that his lips were twitching as he tried – and failed – to hold back a smile. "Is it safe to look now?"

"Yeah." I tied the ends of the sheet together under one arm with a knot. I figured that that would do until he finished whatever business he had in here, and left the tent so I could change. My new gold Mirrodin garb was too bulky to deftly slip into underneath the sheet – and what with all the pointy parts, I would probably just end up ripping a hole in it anyway. "What's that you have? It looks like a map."

Jace turned back to me, scooting a little closer so that he could hold out the parchment for me to see. "That's because it is," he said. "It's crude, but it shows all the entrances to the refugee camp. While you were sleeping, I was out setting up illusions here," he pointed to the map, "here, and here to keep any stray Phyrexians at bay. Not sure how well it will work at this point, but I figured that it was worth a try."

I shrugged and offered him a grin. "Sounds like a good idea to me."

Jace nodded. His voice had grown quieter, but only a little. As he spoke, he reached up to brush a fallen lock of hair out of his eyes, and then again with a flicker of irritation when it fell right back. "I had to keep myself busy somehow, while you were recovering."

My groggy temper vanished as I suddenly remembered Vincenius's words back in the clinic – How Jace had lost sleep coming to check up on me, day after day, even though he was already giving his all in the fight against the Phyrexians. I smiled, warmly. "From what I hear, you kept _plenty_ busy. Vincenius told me how much of a help you've been."

For a moment Jace blinked, as if surprised, but then his gaze settled back to normal and he smiled at me in return. "Well, that's good to know. I'm not used to the style of fighting they use here – It's far too melee-oriented for me, and I thought I was doing horribly." He paused, and then his smile widened. "…He really said that, though?"

I laughed. The way he looked – head tilted to the side, curious eyes, hopeful expression – gave him that air of boyishness from before, that rare _humanity _that all the planeswalkers I had met so far, save for Venser, seemed to have trouble finding most of the time. "Yes, Jace, he said that. He also said that you, um…" I blushed, though I had been trying my best not to, "…that you were checking up on me, every day. Is that true?"

Jace grinned unabashedly. Hearing that Vincenius found him useful seemed to have lightened his mood, and my suspicion was confirmed when I heard the teasing note in his voice. "Well, _someone _had to make sure that the crazy fish doctor didn't inject you with too many chemicals. I mean, we _did _lose a few of his soldiers in the battles – Who's to say he wouldn't take you on as a replacement?"

Though I scoffed at his words, inside I felt a secret rush of relief. Jace seemed to have let go of whatever negativity he was holding against me before Koth and I left for Ish Sah – either that, or he was just in an exceptionally good mood. Whichever option, though, I felt much better. "_I _say so!"I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. I tried to keep my expression deadly serious as I gazed at Jace, but…to be honest, I was pretty sure I was doing an awful job. "Vincenius made a point of telling me the _very_ first time I visited his clinic that his army is made up entirely of volunteers. He wouldn't just whip out his magic and start mutating people willy-nilly! I'm sure even _you_ know that!"

Jace chuckled. "For someone who was complaining about how fearsome he is in battle just a couple of weeks ago, you certainly have a lot of faith in him."

I shrugged, and reached a hand out to finger the metal of one of my pauldrons. "He can't be _that_ bad." I managed to keep a straight face for a good five seconds after my deadpan, and then immediately I broke out into a grin. "He gave me a present."

Jace chuckled again before reaching out too, and delicately he lifted the gold off of the ground a few inches so that he could inspect it. "Hmmm." After a moment he set it back down, and cocked an eyebrow at me. "Well, other than the ears, I bet you blend in perfectly with all the other auriok now."

I opened my mouth to ask him, curious, what an auriok was – But before I could, there was a rustling at the entrance to the tent, and a blue, finned head poked its way through the cloth flaps. Involuntarily, I withdrew even further under my sheet.

One of Vincenius's mer soldiers stood in front of us half-bent, with the cloth flaps spread out across his bare shoulders like a blanket he had long since outgrown. Jace must have known him, because the two exchanged a brief nod before the newcomer turned to me. When he did – and saw my own bare shoulders poking out from beneath the sheet – his eyebrows darted up his forehead, and a knowing grin slowly began to spread across his face. _Oh, shit._

"Am I…interrupting something? Should I come back later?"

I turned a thousand different shades of red. Quickly as I could, I averted my gaze, but Jace (damn him), only made things worse by letting out a hearty laugh. To my relief, though, it didn't last long. When I finally had the courage to look up again, he was waving a hand at the mer dismissively.

"No, no, you're fine, Efrem. I just got here a short while ago, and _she _just woke up. Nothing to see here."

"Ah." Efrem rested a hand on his hip, and when he moved I caught a brief glimpse of the serrated spear that he was holding in his other hand, outside the tent. "Well, I just came to tell you that Commander Vincenius has requested both of your presences in the dining hall of his clinic. He says that you have important business to discuss."

All at once, Jace's jovial expression sobered. It happened as quickly as donning a mask. "Business…" He stood swiftly, gathering up what few possessions he had strewn about as he went. Though it was still as blazing hot as it ever was here, he began to pull on his dark undershirt and his dyed-blue leathers, layer after layer. Buckling the straps tight, he paused in his efforts only to throw the bulk of his cloak over his shoulder.

"Time to pack up, Ranewen," he said, looking down at me for a brief second. The mirth in his eyes had vanished when I met them, and had been replaced with his usual calm unreadability. My heart sank at the sight of it. "It looks like we might be heading back to Ravnica soon. I'll meet you outside the tent in a few minutes."

* * *

><p>Once I had gotten dressed and ready, I stowed my other outfit and my hunting knife in the leather bag that Jace had given me before we left for Mirrodin, and we were off. The walk didn't take as long as usual – likely because Efrem knew the byways of the refugee camp better than I, and thus was able to take every available shortcut. I stopped listening to the conversation between him and Jace after the first five minutes. They were talking strategy and weaponry and Phyrexian this and praetor that, and for once my insatiable curiosity seemed to be missing in action. Perhaps it was because I was still a bit tired, but…for some reason, I just wasn't interested. At all. The only thing I found myself thinking about was Zendikar.<p>

_Home_.

Lately I had been berating myself for not saying my goodbyes before I left, for getting caught up in all the strangeness and excitement of my spark igniting and the handsome mage coming to my rescue against a vampire, and…well, now the guilt was finally catching up to me. It hurt, far more than I had expected it to.

But before I could dwell on my own darknesses more, I realized that we had arrived. Efrem led Jace and I through the clinic's myriad of rooms until we finally emerged through a set of tall, polished double doors – Venser's handiwork, perhaps? The carvings looked nearly identical to the ones adorning his workshop entrance – into a spacious hall. A long table spread down the length of the room at the center, and the first several yards of it were covered in dozens of clay bowls of the most brightly colored, delicious-looking fruit I had ever seen, and steaming platters of dishes that I couldn't even guess at. They all smelled mouthwateringly fantastic, though. I hadn't even realized how hungry I was until that moment.

Vincenius was sitting at the head of the table, smiling. "Jace! Ranewen! Good of you two to join us. Thank you, Efrem – You may go. I will speak to you later." The soldier departed with a bow, leaving Jace and I to stand there in the doorway and take in the scene. Koth was sitting to Vincenius's left, and a white-robed, dark-haired figure to his right – which I realized, as I breathed in deeply, was Elspeth – and there were three sets of silverware laid out in front of three empty chairs. _Venser must be coming too_, I noted. He was nowhere to be seen, but as I took a few steps closer to the table there was suddenly a loud _pop_, and then the artificer was just standing in front of me, pulling out one of the empty chairs.

"Here, I got that for you," he said. He tilted his head a little and smiled at me roguishly.

I grinned. So did Vincenius, and beside me I heard a soft breath of feminine laughter. As always, Koth remained stony-faced – how could anyone expect anything different? – but as Jace took the empty seat next to him, I thought I caught a hint of a frown as it crossed his lips. But I could have been wrong.

When I took the offered chair and Venser sat down beside me, Vincenius folded his hands and leaned forward across the table. He nodded officiously. "Thank you, everyone, for agreeing to come to breakfast with me this morning. I am sure you all have some idea of the business I convened this meeting to discuss – after all, the evidence is sitting right here among us." He turned to Jace and I in turn with an inscrutable smile, and though Jace's expression didn't change, I found myself smiling back. I couldn't help it.

"These two planeswalkers came to us in their hour of need, and though our fight was not theirs, they provided us with invaluable assistance nonetheless. They have helped us not only to defend Mirrodin against the Phyrexian horde, but they have returned two of our number to us, safe and sound, from a captivity the likes of which I would not wish on my worst foe." The mer's voice was smoother than I had heard it yet, and it rang with a clear note of authority derived from years of commanding the respect of others. "I speak for all of us when I thank them again, and inform them that we are at their service, so long as what they may request of us does not prove too dire, or entirely impossible."

I sat enthralled. I knew Vincenius was a powerful commander and planeswalker, but I had never expected him to speak so eloquently. When he signaled that he was finished by sitting back in his chair and sweeping an arm toward Jace, though, my attention instantly shifted. I didn't know if Jace wanted me to chime in at any point – much less what I would actually say if he did – but I wanted to be prepared, just in case.

"I won't speak long," he said then as he stood, his voice sounding clipped but firm. "Vincenius has been a gracious enough host to share food with us, and I won't be so careless as to allow it to go cold." He nodded once before continuing, and then shifted his gaze to meet mine. I felt inexplicably self-conscious. "As I have informed you all over the past week, a great force threatens Ranewen's home plane, as it does the rest of the multiverse if allowed to proceed in its actions unchecked. The Eldrazi are incredibly dangerous creatures, as are their spawn that we call the "brood lineage." Not only can they walk worlds, but they can…consume them – in a matter of days, even, or so the legends say. The only way to defeat them is to amass as much power as we can in a head-to-head confrontation, to which end I call upon you, my fellow planeswalkers, for assistance. There are still many other walkers my team and I back on Ravnica have yet to find, and any assistance you can field in that realm would also be greatly appreciated. However, the main thing that we are asking of you, the only _true _thing…" He paused momentarily, and looked around at Vincenius, Koth, Elspeth, and Venser in turn with an expression so grave that I felt the beginnings of a chill crawl down my spine, "…is for you to fight by our side in the great battle to re-imprison the Eldrazi. We fight not only for Zendikar and its denizens, but for the fate of the entire multiverse, even the Blind Eternities itself." There was another pause, and then Jace seated himself back down, quickly, and with what I assumed to be an intentional flourish of cloak. The entire room had fallen silent as its inhabitants stared off into their own bits of space in thought.

Suddenly, I heard a voice rise from next to me. "Hells, I'll go."

I turned to face Venser, my movements and expression sharp with surprise. Across from me, Jace looked much the same as I felt. "Venser?" I asked, dubiously.

He turned to me, and then to Jace, and then back to me again before nodding. "Yeah. I mean, aren't I the obvious choice?" He shifted a little in his chair, the fabric of his long brown tunic rustling against his curved silver pauldrons. There was a note of something in his face that I couldn't quite decipher. "Vincenius is the commander and head doctor – People _need_ him here. Maybe he could planeswalk away for short periods of time, but in the long run…no." He shook his head, and I watched his brown-eyed gaze shift across the table to the vulshok as he gestured. "Koth's fight is for Mirrodin, against the Phyrexians. I don't think any of us could, in our right minds, ask him to leave his people."

"Wisely spoken, tinkerer," Koth responded, interrupting like a sudden rumble of thunder. There was a pause, and then he said, more quietly, "Though I would not shy away from a single battle where my strength is greatly needed." He turned to fix his steely gaze on Jace. "To that end, boy, and to the end that we already agreed upon, my magic is yours."

"As is mine," chimed in Vincenius. When I looked over at him, I saw a small smile twisting the mer's lips. "I will stand beside you against the Eldrazi, but until then, my place is here. If you have something you wish of me in the meantime, I am but a short walk away."

"I, for one, am in agreement with Venser. As soon as I have made a full recovery, I am yours to command whenever you so wish."

At once the entire table turned to face the soft voice that had just spoken, to Elspeth. She sat calmly with her hands folded in her lap, staring straight ahead at the wall with blank grey eyes. Her utter lack of expression troubled me. Was she recalling the horrors that she had endured under the Phyrexians? Was the trauma of it all too much for her to take? I had an instinctive urge to reach out and place my hand over hers, as my sister had always done to me whenever I was lost in my own thoughts way back when, but of course that would be foolish. She didn't know me, I didn't know her. The gesture would just come off as being patronizing, and that was the last impression I wanted to make.

"Elspeth," Vincenius said gently, "Venser. Are you both sure of your decisions?"

Elspeth simply nodded, but Venser spoke up from my other side. "Why not?" He shrugged, and I felt a warm rush of gratitude when he put on his most charming smile in what I assumed was an attempt to lighten the serious tone of the conversation. He threw me a glance out of the corner of his eye. "I've always liked seeing new places, and if I go with them now then I get to see at least two. Besides, I can come back here at any time if someone needs me to build something."

Several moments passed in silence, and then finally, slowly, Vincenius nodded. "Very well," he said. From the note of finality in his voice, it was clear that the discussion was well and truly complete. "The decision has been made. Venser will return to Ravnica with Jace and Ranewen, and Elspeth shall remain here under my care until she is in fighting form again. Any objections?"

There were none. There _were_, however, several pairs of hungry eyes on the buffet of food, mine among them.

Vincenius noticed and let out a short laugh. "Well then, I won't delay you all any longer. Go ahead, eat – That's what it's here for!"

And eat we did. The meat that had smelled so good on my way in was still warm, and still tasted slightly of copper, but it was spiced enough that it didn't bother me at all. Despite that, however, and despite all the other dishes laid out in front of me, the fruit had to be my favorite thing at the table. I hadn't seen anything like it before – there were spheres of green with tough rinds and tart centers, crisp yellow oblong shapes that tasted of sweet summer rain, pale red globes that looked similar to gel fruit but were far softer, and far more flavorful. I relished every bite. After a few minutes of eating in silent wonder, Venser leaned over to me, close enough so that he could be heard over the conversation that Vincenius had started up across the table with Koth and Jace.

"None of these are native to Mirrodin, did you know that?" He noted my look of confusion (it was all I could do with my mouth full) with a chuckle, and sat back in his chair a little. "Doc has a garden plane all to himself. He claimed it for his own long before the Mending, or so he says – Me, I think what with all the power planeswalkers used to have, he might've just _built_ it. Every couple of days he heads out there to recuperate, and when he comes back he brings all this with him."

I finally swallowed my bite, and looked over at Venser with a smile. "Well, it's better than gel fruit, that's for sure."

The artificer grinned. "Wake up with a headache this morning?"

Remembering the throbbing ache in my skull that had only just eased up, I tried to scowl. Instead, it quickly dissolved into a giggle. "You knew the whole time that was going to happen! You bastard, you should have warned me earlier."

He put a hand to his chest in mock affront. "But m'lady, I did! It's not my fault you were so eager to prove you can hold your alcohol!"

"Which apparently, I can't yet."

He shook his head, and smiled. "Ah, you'll get the hang of it eventually. It just takes a bit of practice and pacing." For a moment he paused, and then his smile turned a little more sincere as he regarded me. "Looks like we're going to have to postpone our dinner though, huh?"

Now it was my turn to shake my head. "Not necessarily." I smiled too. "We might just have to relocate it, that's all. Not so bad, right?"

Venser laughed, a soft rich sound. "No, not at all. I look forward to it."

Then, before I could say anything more to him, I felt a sudden warmth against my hand where it lay on my lap – and to my utter surprise, when I looked down I found Elspeth's hand covering my own. My eyes widened. I lifted my head to face her, and when I did I felt my breath catch in my throat.

Her gaze was completely unlike before, deep and haunting and full of too many mixed emotions for me to distinguish. I found myself momentarily unable to breathe. "Thank you," she whispered. Without pretense, she turned my palm upright in hers, and then I felt something cool and heavy drop into it. I didn't dare look away from her though – not yet. "Vincenius told me that you were the one who saved my life. This is…not much, but I wanted to give it to you as a small token of my thanks. It was mine, once." She closed my fingers around the smooth object in my palm, and finally, I pulled my eyes from her grey ones to chance a look down at it. My heart skipped a beat.

"But Lady Elspeth, I…" I held up the large gold medallion she had given me with reverence, taking in the beautifully etched symbols on it, the gleaming sun and the majestic eagle soaring over a field of flowers. "You shouldn't be giving _me_ this. _Vincenius_ was the one who nursed you back to health, not me. I don't deserve it."

But Elspeth shook her head vehemently. "No, dear Ranewen. You valor in battle will not go unrewarded, not so long as I live. You may not realize the bravery of what you did, not yet, but…I do." Her hand still remained clasped over mine, and I could feel my heart pounding in my ears as I met her gaze again. It held such powerful sincerity that, for a moment, just one…I almost believed her. "Where I once called home, these sigils were given for great feats of strength and self-sacrifice. _You _have done such a thing on my behalf. It is a debt I cannot hope to repay, but until I find some way that I can, somehow, I offer you a piece of my own honor."

For a long moment, I couldn't find the right words for what I wanted to say. After another moment, I gave up trying. "Thank you," I said. My voice was faint, almost strained, and as I looked at Elspeth and her worn yet beautiful face, at her black hair that fell loose over her shoulders, I felt an all-too-familiar ache build in my chest. "I will cherish this always, my lady."

But Elspeth said nothing else. She merely smiled, and with that she turned back to the food in front of her and resumed eating.

* * *

><p>The breakfast continued on for another hour or so before Jace finally stood, nodding to Venser and I as if to say, 'Time to leave." Goodbyes were brief, since we all knew that we would be seeing one another again shortly – Though as I slung the strap of my bag over my shoulder and headed to the empty space by the door with Jace and Venser on either side, I stole one last look at Elspeth. Vincenius stood behind her chair, smiling and waving, but she herself did not move. Instead, she remained seated with her hands folded in her lap, and her eyes followed me wherever I went. When I at last found them with my own she treated me to a small smile, so delicate that if I could hold it in my hands I was sure it would break instantly.<p>

Before I could stare overlong, though, Jace tore apart the fabric of reality with his mind, and he stepped through the shimmering cerulean curtain into the Blind Eternities. I followed, with Venser right at my heels.

My third planeswalk was no less strange and arduous than the first two, but despite the lack of a sense of time in the void, it felt somehow shorter than them both. It wasn't long before I was stepping out from the swirling, dizzying masses of light and color and sound and onto one of the plush rugs of the Consortium compound's common room. I sank right down onto the nearest couch. Compared to Mirrodin, the Ravnican air was so cool that I began to drink in deep breaths of it like water, until Venser at last emerged, dazed, where I had been standing a moment ago. As soon as he exited, the portal vanished.

"Ugh." He groaned, rubbing the side of his head as he stumbled his way over to sit next to me. When he did, he let out his breath in a huff. "I don't think I was prepared enough for that one. Must not have been concentrating when I entered from Mirrodin…"

Jace then stepped away from the window that he had been staring out of, and came close to rest a palm on the arm of the couch beside me. His blue eyes were alight. "Hey, it happens. At least we all made it here in one piece." For a moment he paused to favor me with a smile, which sent a flurry of butterflies to wing in my chest, and then he straightened and began to pace back and forth across the length of the rug. "And I managed to get Koth to agree to work with Sorin, who's going to planeswalk to Mirrodin as soon as he gets back with Chandra so he can teach him how to remake the central hedron."

Venser chuckled and folded his arms over his chest. "I'm afraid I lost you there, captain."

Jace shook his head. "No, don't worry about it. I'll explain everything to you later." He hefted the pack that he had been carrying into a more comfortable position, and then started off toward the stairs without so much as a glance back. "Right now I need to get a few things settled, so just relax, have a drink, take a walk around Ravnica…whatever you like. I'll be back down by sunset, and we can discuss the situation then." He didn't wait for a reply from either of us, and instead took the steps up two at a time, his cloak billowing out behind him the whole way. When he had disappeared from sight, Venser chuckled again.

"Well, _he's_ certainly in a hurry."

I smiled, wistfully. "Yeah. He always seems to have something or other to do."

"But _we _don't!" Grinning, Venser stood, and he held out a hand to me once he had smoothed the wrinkles from his tunic. "Why don't we take him up on that last option? I haven't gotten to see Ravnica up close yet. Hells, I haven't even gotten to see it from afar." He tilted his chin toward the towering windows, and then paused for a moment, as if he had just thought of something. Still grinning, he nodded to me. "Though I'm going to venture a guess that people here don't exactly walk around wearing outfits made of pure gold."

I snorted. Fortunately, the sound came out almost ladylike. "Yeah, you're right." I took his hand, and allowed him to help me to my feet – which, to my surprise, took almost no effort on his part. Once I was upright, I adjusted the weight of my bag's strap where it hung from my shoulder. "I'll go change into something a little less conspicuous, and we can head out after that. Deal?"

Venser nodded. "Deal."

* * *

><p>Clad in the long, flowing white tunic that someone had bought for me while I was gone and then left in my closet – Chandra, I guessed, from the little smiling face drawn on a scrap of paper that I had found pinned to one of the sleeves – and my usual brown leggings and boots, Venser and I made our way out of the compound. It took nearly a half hour of walking to pass through the entire expanse of the Rubblefield once we had achieved that feat, but when we finally did we strode purposefully, side by side, into the city proper.<p>

Buildings stretched high above us all around, with twisting spires and looming archways and glittering stained-glass windows the likes of which I had never seen before – and that was only what lay above my head. At eye level the streets were packed with throngs of brightly-dressed people, either walking from one place to the next, or stopping on street corners to chat, or examining the wares that vendors hawked from behind the shade and safety of their wooden carts. Venser and I had been holding idle conversation about our surroundings up until now, but the further we walked from the compound, the more my brewing idea came to a boil in the forefront of my mind. It took nearly all of my effort to keep my tongue in check, but finally, as we rounded a corner near a market square, I realized that I couldn't hold back any longer.

"Venser," I said. The tone in my voice must have caught him off guard, because he stopped dead in his tracks to look down at me. Someone bumped into him from behind and grumbled, so he stepped off to the side, against the wall of a modest brick building. I followed.

"What is it, Rana?" he asked. The note of concern in his voice made me feel suddenly guilty, but I wasn't about to back down now. I couldn't. _Besides, it's not like I'm going to ask him anything terrible._

"Do you know if…" I swallowed, and looked around briefly to see if anyone was obviously listening in on us. No one was. No one even seemed to notice us, now that we were out of the way of the foot traffic. Slowly, I shifted my weight from one leg to the other. "…if planeswalkers can sense one another, when they walk? I need to know. It's important."

Venser looked taken aback by the question, but his expression quickly settled into one of deep thought. After a long moment, he shrugged. "Well…there are spells for it, yes, but other than that…no, not passively or anything." He examined me closely, and as I watched his brow began to furrow. "Why? Are you hiding something?"

Hearing the suspicious tone that had found its way into his voice, I held up my hands and shook my head vigorously. "No!" I exclaimed. "No, I'm not. I just…" I sighed, and reached up to twirl a lock of hair around my finger – the same habit I always resorted to whenever I was anxious. "I want to go _home_, Venser. Just once. I didn't get to say my goodbyes before I left, and it's haunting me, and I want to go back for just a little while so I can…so I can do that. So I can tell everyone where I'm going, and what I'm fighting for." There was a moment's pause, and then my gaze shifted to the worn cobblestones beneath my feet, unable to hold onto anything else. Especially not Venser's eyes, kind as they were. "They probably think I'm dead by now, anyway. I want to let them know that I'm safe and well."

Indeed Venser's eyes _were_ kind, and intent too, because when he spoke next I couldn't stop myself from looking up and into them. "Well, why not just go?" A flicker of anger crossed his face then, and all of a sudden he took ahold of my shoulders, though not roughly. I balked a little at the sharp severity that had overcome his voice. "Are they keeping you here against your will? Is that what's going on?"

"No!" I realized right away how indignant my own voice sounded, and I worked to correct it. Gently, I took his hands off of me and lowered them to his sides. "It's not that. I'm fine. What it _is_ is that…" I hesitated, and then I let out a long groan. "Oh, this is going to sound so stupid. I'm…I'm _nervous_, to go by myself." Shaking my head, I ignored the loose pieces of hair that began to tumble down into my face. Hells, all the better – they hid the embarrassed flush that had just now spread to my cheeks, and that made me feel uncomfortably warm under the mid-afternoon sun. "I don't want to get attacked by the brood lineage again, or get lost in the Blind Eternities, or anything like that. I wanted to ask Jace, but he's always been too busy. Chandra and Sorin are gone, too, off doing who knows what. When I met _you_, though…" I smiled, despite myself, and tilted my head a little as I met Venser's questioning gaze. "I was sure that you would help me. Or at least, I hoped so. You said you love to see new places, right…?"

Slowly, a smile of his own began to turn up the corners of the artificer's lips. "Right. So, when are we leaving?"

For a moment his words didn't register – and then, a moment after that, their meaning hit me at once. All I could do was blink at him in surprise. "Wait, really?"

Venser laughed. "Yes, of course really! I want to see Zendikar, you need a traveling partner – It's that simple, isn't it?" He took my hand, and quick as lightning he pulled me around the corner, into the darkness of the alleyway between the brick building and its neighbor. There was no one around. "We have the whole day. Why don't we just go right now? I'm sure we can be back to see Jace by the time the sun goes down, and I can follow your aether trail on the way there." His voice was so earnest, so eager, that I couldn't help but let out a soft laugh as I stared up into his now wide, bright eyes. _Is it really this easy? Is this all it's going to take?_

"Sounds like a plan," I breathed. I could barely contain my excitement as I closed my eyes and focused my will, calling upon all the mana I could find in the multiverse that would bend to serve me. It came, and it answered my call not in a trickle but a torrent – a heady, intoxicating rush that nearly sent me reeling with the sheer raw _power_ of it. Immediately, I directed that power into my body and Venser's, and curling, leafy vines began to twine about us from toe to head as I pulled us both into the space between worlds. The last thing I heard before I vanished outright was Venser's voice, laughing distantly, as if he were someplace very far away.

"Well, looks like you've finally figured out how to make a flashy exit!"

And then the streets and buildings and people of Ravnica were all gone.


	14. Chapter 14

When I stepped out of the Blind Eternities and into existence, I found that I couldn't see – at least, not for a moment. Something was obscuring my vision.

I coughed and waved a hand in front of my face, and slowly the smoky grey began to clear from my eyes. It took a good full minute until my sight – and my other senses, which were oddly dulled – was restored, but I was willing to wait. A minute was nothing compared to how long I had waited to return home.

When they did, however, every last fiber in my body went numb.

I wondered briefly if something had gone wrong in the planeswalk, if I had taken us somewhere besides Zendikar, somewhere we shouldn't be – but just as quickly as the thought had occurred, I _knew_ that I was fooling myself. I _knew_ that this was Zendikar, knew it as surely as I knew my own name, that I was Ranewen of the Tajuru – arboromancer, healer, and covert black mage, and now planeswalker errant.

But to my horror, I also now knew that _everything _was gone.

I was standing in the middle of an expanse of pure and utter nothing – There were no jaddi-trees, no ferns, no flickering fires from where my village's canopy houses should have hung, high up, a half-mile away. I couldn't even feel any mana, from anywhere near or for miles and miles in any direction. The land had been drained completely dry.

All that did remain was the earth beneath me, and the sky above. Both looked as if they had been burned several times over until their last vestiges of life were nothing but ashes. Dark clouds roiled over my head, and in the distance there was a growl of thunder.

Venser's hand was on my shoulder then, and I could hear his voice saying my name, whispering something about how he was so sorry…but I didn't heed it. I shook him away, roughly, and bolted off at a dead sprint into the emptiness ahead.

I ran. It was all I could think to do. I ran until my legs and lungs burned in unison, then even more until my eyes burned, and my cheeks, and then still more until every part of my body felt as if it were aflame, with Venser's own footfalls echoing behind me all the while as he tried to keep up. I didn't care, though. I didn't stop for even a moment until I had reached the spot where I knew my family's own jaddi-tree should be, where I had spent nearly every evening of my life cooking dinner with my mother and listening to my father as we all sat by the fire and he told his stories to Amita and I, where we had scattered that same sister's ashes over the balcony and into the wind one cold dark night as I watched with a heart that felt as heavy and lifeless as stone. I fell to my knees now, staring up at where the jaddi-tree should be and into nothing – into only blackness, into smoke and embers and ash that permeated everything.

It had been a long time since I felt such pain.

Being someone who embraces her emotions freely – each and every one, from the most heart-rending agony to the most uplifting joy – I was used to letting an array of feelings wash over me like a tide, to drown me, to drag me under and swallow me whole in the maw of their depths.

But this…nothing before, _nothing_, could compare to this.

My senses failed me. Everything else around me melted away into the shuddering violence of my screams, and…_spirits_, I didn't know if I was breathing, or if my heart was beating. All I knew was that my body was useless, every muscle that wasn't trembling swiftly falling limp and leaden. I slumped over across my knees like a dead weight, still screaming. Now I could feel the new sensation of hot tears pouring down my face, to drip off and stain my leggings and the blackened, charred earth beneath them. _This isn't real_, I decided, even as my throat began to protest the sounds still erupting from it. _This __**can't**__ be real. I won't let it be._

But as I finally sucked in a gasping lungful of air and drew in the stench of pure death, I knew that I had no choice in the matter.

My screaming at last gave way to huge, racking sobs when the pain in my throat made it clear that I could do the former no longer. I didn't know how long I knelt there like that, but eventually I managed to cry myself hollow – until there was nothing left in me but a hole and a crushing, indescribable ache.

"I…I don't…understand." The sound of my voice, so feeble and hoarse, almost startled me. I hadn't thought I was capable of speaking. "How can this have happened? How..?" I shook my head, disbelief fighting its way to the forefront for just an instant. "This is _madness_!"

From behind me, Venser's voice came, so soft that I had to strain to hear it. When I turned to face him I saw that he was standing close, stock still, his eyes wide with his own disbelief. Bright, clear brown had gone murky under its influence.

"I guess this is what we're fighting," he whispered. "Total annihilation."

At the sound of another voice besides my own in what I could no longer call my home, in what was now nothing more than a desolate wasteland, more feelings bubbled up inside of me – Guilt. Anger. They rose into a rolling boil before I could even process them, and forced me to my feet. My legs were not prepared to withstand my weight, however, and so they buckled beneath me, sending me falling to my knees once more. I spoke again. "I shouldn't have…" As my body sagged, I began to shake my head, back and forth in tune to the rhythm that pounded agonizingly against my skull. "I shouldn't have left. I could have done _something_." I couldn't stop myself from letting out a quiet sob – but then, what was the use in holding it back at this point? Rage swelled within me, directed at anything and everything, and my voice nearly choked on its own bitterness. "But now everyone is DEAD!

"DAMN IT!"

I slammed my fist into the ground with as much physical force as I could muster, and almost instantly a searing pain blossomed and shot its way up my arm. I didn't care. I couldn't care less, actually – I welcomed it, and the sting of the blood that now began to drip from my knuckles.

It took me a moment to notice that Venser had come closer to kneel beside me, albeit a few feet away. He had a concerned look in his eyes now but said nothing, merely watching me, giving me space until I was well enough recovered from my shock and from the torrent of emotions that still had me caught up in its eddies. I didn't think I would be for quite some time, though.

"Somehow…" I murmured, lifting my gaze to meet his own. I couldn't seem to focus on him. "Somehow I knew this was going to happen. And yet…I didn't do anything to stop it." Hurt blossomed as swiftly and as easily as the pain still throbbing in my hand, and I squeezed my eyes shut for a long moment as I fought back more tears. "I could have asked them, asked Jace or Chandra or Sorin or _anyone _to come back with me before we left for Mirrodin, even though they were all busy, but I…" It was much harder to hold back the tears now, and they welled rebelliously in the corners of my eyes, threatening to spill over if I didn't stop talking. But it was too late for that. "I did nothing."

"You did what you thought was best, Ranewen," Venser replied almost instantly, leaning towards me with a solemn expression. His mouth had hardened into a thin line, though his eyes still held their compassion, their worry. "You couldn't have beaten them on your own. You knew that. You knew you had to wait for help." After a moment's pause, the creases in his brow softened, and the faintest traces of a sad smile lifted the corners of his lips.

"Sometimes," he said softly, "you just have to run away."

I said nothing. What _was_ there to say? I wrapped my arms around myself when I finally noticed that I was shivering, partly from the bodily shock, partly from the force of emotion, and partly from the cold winds that ripped intermittently across the barren expanse to lift Venser's tunic and stab me all the way down to my bone. He noticed, of course, and finally deemed it safe enough to move closer so that he could pull me against him in an embrace. Once his warmth had seeped into me enough to stop my teeth from clattering, I shook my head. I wanted to cry still, but I had run out of tears. All that was left was hurt. Everything hurt, so badly that I couldn't stand it. "So this is the part where I'm supposed to retreat inside myself and become all distant and unemotional, right?" Instead of choking me this time, the bitterness dripped from my voice like venom. My hands tightened into fists in his tunic, wadding the fabric between shaky fingers.

"Believe me, you wouldn't be the first." I could feel the vibrations from his voice all the way down to my feet. Its low, sympathetic rumble was almost calming. "But…that's not the only option."

"And what _is _the other option?" My own voice could do no better than a rasp after all the screaming I had done.

Venser shrugged, and my body rose and fell with his movements. "You could try overly emotional," he offered.

At that I couldn't help but look up at him, at his gentle smile and the faintly hopeful gleam in his eyes. They were clear once more, like a lifeline in the ocean of my own personal hell, and for more than a few moments I clung desperately to them. "You're not alone, you know," he continued as he met my gaze. One of his hands reached up to stroke my hair. "You have plenty of people you can turn to. You don't have to hide in yourself."

I let out an almost-laugh, a stilted, awkward sort of sound that was alien even to me. "Overly emotional _does_ sound like me," I admitted. But then I remembered where I was, what had happened, what all I had lost, and…I was shaking my head again, burying my face between where my hands clutched at him. I let out a deep sigh that did nothing to carry the weight of the world off my shoulders. "I don't _want_ to be alone, Venser." My voice was quieter than I had anticipated. "But it's…it's already half-true now. I can't just pretend that it's not."

Tilting my head so that the side of my face rested against his chest, I stared off into the distance without really seeing. "Some part of me had hoped I could come back here once all of this was done and have a happy homecoming, like I had just gone off on a little trip." When my eyes came back into focus, I immediately shut them, not wanting to see the swathe of destruction that surrounded me. "I guess I'm just naïve for thinking that."

This time it was Venser's turn to shake his head. I could feel the slight movement and the exhale of his breath against my hair. "None of us can really come back, Rana." His voice was somber, and somehow sounded as if he were speaking from far away. "Not after our sparks have ignited. Not once we've learned what kind of power has been forced upon us." His fingers were still enmeshed in my hair, but they had stopped moving. I tilted my head up again when I noticed so that I could look at him, but my heart sank even lower than it already was at the expression of deep sadness that had suddenly overcome his face. I could do nothing except blink in surprise when his gaze – not on me but on something else entirely – hardened, and his free arm tightened around me. His fingers dug ever so slightly into the shoulders of my shirt.

"Things are different for us planeswalkers. Our equals aren't men and women, but angels and dragons and…monsters. Like these."

I looked away then, not wanting to see the darkness in his face anymore, not wanting to see anything. Instead I rested my forehead against the hollow in his collarbone and just breathed in the smell of him – warm leather and oil, a mélange of earthy woods, and the faint tang of metal, all mixed with the scent of his own skin – as unique to him as a fingerprint. For some reason unbeknownst to me, it quieted the storm inside my head and heart until it was just a dull roar, nearly insubstantial as the gathering fog. That storm blanketed me still, yes, but for the first time since I had seen the horrors that greeted me here, I felt…calm. I could think without falling prey to the howling assaults of my own grief, could speak without feeling as if each word was sapping my strength. My eyes closed, and for a moment I drifted.

"I wonder if this route is better, then," I spoke, barely above a whisper. "To have your bridges burned for you, so you don't have to hang onto something you know will never really be yours again." New tears at last loosed themselves, though silently. As they fell, my voice broke.

"It doesn't feel like it now, though. That's for sure."

Venser took a few moments to respond, and when he did, his voice was hardly louder than mine.

"No…there's always something more you can't have. That doesn't change."

Despite myself, I felt a chuckle rise in my throat, past the lump that always formed whenever I cried. It wasn't of humor, or even of bitterness – I didn't quite know what it was, in fact, only that the impulse took over me and I couldn't stop it. I didn't move my head from where it was, still not wanting to look at him. "Like what?" I asked. My voice came out muffled from against his chest. _What more could I have possibly wanted than home? _

His breath hitched, and I could feel it. There was a long pause. "That's…too personal."

I didn't know what to say to that. So for the second time that day, I didn't say anything.

We remained just like that for a while, his arms wrapped around me and mine still fisted in his tunic. As the seconds passed, my grip continued to loosen, and it eventually fell away entirely. I couldn't bring myself to lift my arms and hug him back, though I didn't want to break the embrace either. It was comforting, and without it I don't think I would have made it out of this – I didn't want to call it a situation, because that word seemed too casual, too impersonal, but it was all my torn mind could think of at the moment – situation alright. But as it was, I was finally beginning to feel calm enough to push things aside, at least for now. Later was a different story. But now…now, at least everything had gone numb, like that blissfully agonizing moment when I had first arrived.

"I…don't know what to do."

Hearing my words, Venser made the decision for me and stood. He pulled me up with him effortlessly, hands lingering on my shoulders to steady me when, sure enough, I wobbled. Once he was sure that I could remain standing on my own, though, he stepped back to a normal walking distance and fixed me with a melancholy smile.

"I think it's time to go."

My heart twisted a little at the thought of leaving Zendikar behind, but…when I forced myself to turn and look around me one last time, I realized that there really _wasn't_ any reason for me to be here. Not yet. Until I could return with as many planeswalkers as our little ragtag group could muster, intent on fighting to the death and not looking back for anything, my place was elsewhere. Where specifically, I didn't know. Ravnica. Mirrodin, maybe. Honestly, it didn't matter – So long as I did whatever I needed to do in order to help bring the Eldrazi down, I could be living in the filthiest, most crime-ridden city slums, for all I cared. My hands shook now as I clenched them into fists at my side, and as I stared beyond the ruins of what had once been my world to the looming outlines of the creatures that lay far beyond in the distance, I felt thick, hot _hate_ rise in my chest. It blocked out everything else, all my pain and disbelief and sorrow, and for a moment my vision went red at the edges.

"I will kill you," I whispered, "_all_ of you. No matter what it takes."

And with that I turned to take Venser's outstretched hand, and a sheen of golden light flared around our bodies as he planeswalked us both away.

* * *

><p>When we were both safely back in the Consortium compound, Venser took me up to my room and encouraged me to get some rest. He said that he needed to return to Mirrodin for the evening so that he could inform Vincenius of everything that had happened, that he thought the mer commander would like to know, that he would be back the next morning to explain everything to Jace, he swore on his heart. I hadn't put up a word in protest, and so without further ado he had left. Thus I found myself alone, and also at a complete loss as to what to do.<p>

I _was _exhausted, but I didn't think I would be able to sleep. Sunset was nearing – the first tinges of red and purple were visible at the edges of what sky I could see between the buildings outside my window – but I didn't want to talk to Jace. I didn't want to talk to anyone, really. Venser had said that he would take care of things tomorrow, and I planned to take him up on that offer.

After a time, I finally decided that my best possible course of action would be to drink until I passed out.

I crept down into the common room and had the golem bartender – whose name I would have to remember to get, when I was less inclined to make myself forget as many of the day's events as possible – procure me a bottle of rich, aged red wine and a gleaming crystal glass to go with it, both of which I carried snugly under my arm as I hurried back up the stairs.

Apparently I was in _such_ a hurry that I had forgotten to shut my door, because just as I was about to pour myself a third glass, a familiar face poked its way into the room.

"Ranewen?"

I gave a start, and had to catch the wine bottle before it could tilt too far and spill all over my sheets. Fortunately, my reflexes hadn't yet been affected by the alcohol – just my emotions. Or maybe it wasn't the alcohol at all, maybe it was just because I had recently found out that everyone I knew and loved was dead. Either or.

"Jace." My voice came out as bitter as it had been earlier, back in Zendikar. I could feel anger swelling in me as he stepped fully into the room and I looked at him. _Why didn't he stop to think about me? _His eyes widened in concern when he saw the expression on my face, but that only incensed me even more. _Was what he had to do __**so**__ important that he couldn't have warned me before we left about what might happen? That I would be leaving everyone behind to __**die**__? _My fingers tightened around the stem of my glass, and they shook. _Was he __**so **__busy that he couldn't stop for one minute to take me back, and help __**save everyone's lives**__ before it was too late?_

I gritted my teeth, and suddenly, before I could compose myself, I felt tears stinging their way down my cheeks. "I thought you should know that the Eldrazi are progressing further on Zendikar than we had originally expected."

For a moment Jace just looked confused, bewildered even – and then, at once, he understood. He rushed over to sit beside me on the bed, taking the wine bottle and empty glass from my hands before I had a chance to react, and putting them aside.

"This is what I was afraid of," he whispered. He took one of my hands in both of his and stared directly into my eyes. "Ranewen, I'm so sorry."

The sincerity of the grief in his gaze caught me off guard. I almost believed him, believed that he hadn't anticipated this, that he _was _sorry…My anger faltered, and I allowed him to continue holding my hand instead of brushing him away. Still though, I couldn't hold my tongue. "Sorry for what? You could have prevented this at any time. This didn't have to happen."

Jace closed his eyes, let out a deep breath, and shook his head. I tried to convince myself that he didn't look profoundly sad, but it wasn't working. "No, I couldn't have. There was nothing any of us could have done, not even if we had tried the day we found you."

My eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean…" he hesitated, and then slowly lifted his blue eyes to settle on mine. "…that the brood lineage had probably already reached your village by the time that squadron attacked you. They travel fast, and they…" He shook his head again. "...they…consume things even faster. The only way to save anyone would have been to take them through the Blind Eternities, which no planeswalker has been able to do with a mortal since the Mending. There was no way anyone could flee on foot fast enough."

I opened my mouth, then just as quickly snapped it shut. For a moment, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "So you…you knew, this whole time?" Now I shook my head. I could feel an incredulous laugh building in my throat."You knew, and you didn't tell me?"

Jace smiled, without mirth. "If you were in my place, would you have wanted to?" After a moment his shoulders sagged, and in the span of a few seconds his expression grew very, very tired. "Besides, I…wasn't even sure. I thought…I _hoped_ that there was some chance, however small."

My vision began to blur with tears then as the full realization hit me – If what Jace just said was true, then everyone had been doomed from the start. There was nothing that I…_any_ of us, could have done. Nothing. Destiny, fate, whatever in the nine hells people liked to call it, had come that day to take its toll, and it hadn't been in the mood to delay its journey.

"No," I breathed, and the voice that I heard wasn't mine but someone else's – a frightened little girl's voice, small and confused and helpless. "No, no…" I felt my head dropping onto my chest. It took every shred of willpower I had to keep myself from crying. _I can't. I won't. No more. I have to be strong…_

"I'm so sorry," Jace said again. He squeezed my hand, and somewhere in the haze of my mind I realized that his were shaking. There was a long pause. "If you need to talk to anyone, I'm here. My situation is vastly different from yours, of course, but I…know what it's like. To feel betrayed. To lose someone."

The hollow ring to his voice pulled my head up, and my gaze to his. He didn't look back at me, though – He was staring straight ahead at the closet door, as intently as if he knew it were going to spring to life any second. I looked away. My gaze instead settled on my lap, where he still held my hand in a tight grip. "What happened?"

A minute passed before he answered, and when he did his voice was as soft as I had ever heard it. "I…" He sighed, heavily. "I put my trust in the wrong person. More than that, I loved her. Stupid as I was. She took everything from me, everything that mattered. My home, my friends…Kallist…" He squeezed my hand so hard that I winced. "Ah." He had noticed. "Sorry. But…anyway, you don't want to hear it." He scowled, seemingly at himself. "It's going to make me sound like a pathetic little child, especially after what just happened to you."

I shook my head. I hadn't been expecting him to open up so suddenly, and as dour as the subject matter was, it was a welcome distraction. "No, Jace, tell me."

But he shook his head too. "I…no, Ranewen, I can't tell the whole thing. Not right now. I'm sorry I mentioned it. Maybe later, but…"

"Jace." I stared at him until he finally looked up at me, but as soon as he did I knew that even then he wasn't going to relent. Apparently, this really _was_ something that haunted him.

"I'm sorry," he said, and smiled faintly as he stood and pulled his hands from mine, "but I need to clear my head if I want to have any hope of discussing that subject rationally. When I do, though, I promise I'll let you know."

"What, so you're just going to leave?" I knew it was a selfish thing to say, but I had blurted it out before I could think. I had realized that he was going to go off and do whatever important planeswalker-Consortium-_whatever_ business he needed to do, and I didn't want him to go. Not now. Just a short while ago I had wanted to be alone, but now that I had started talking, now that I had cracked the veneer of brooding solitude I had built up around myself…I wanted him to stay. Needed him to.

"If you want a chance at getting revenge on the Eldrazi," he said then, and the quiet force behind his words gave me pause, "then yes. I need to go. If you want some company, you know where my office is. I can't guarantee I'll make fantastic conversation while I'm poring over my reports, but…" He smiled again. "…my door is always open to you."

And with that he left, and I was once again alone with nothing but my own thoughts – and this time, too, a half-empty bottle of wine.


	15. Chapter 15

By the time I woke up the next day, it was mid-afternoon.

My head hurt even worse than it had the morning after my dinner with Venser. I knew that lying around in bed all day wouldn't do me any good, though, so I just grit my teeth and bore it as I rolled to one side – and accidentally off the bed, dragging several sheets with me. I groaned when I hit the floor.

Eventually, I managed to struggle myself into an ankle-length green dress (another gift from most likely Chandra), and tied on a pair of laced brown sandals (yet another gift – It seemed like my mysterious benefactor had made it a personal goal to attend to my distinct lack of a wardrobe). When I saw my reflection in the mirror, I did have to admit that I looked nice…even nicer when I took a few minutes to tease the bedhead from my hair, which was not an easy task. When all was said and done, I couldn't help but smile. Feeling pretty wasn't something that I ordinarily concerned myself with, let alone something that I savored – but today, it managed to cheer me up, just a little. Perhaps my recovery from all that had happened wouldn't be in giant leaps, but in baby steps. Perhaps this was the first of many.

Ignoring the pounding that assaulted my ears every time I moved, I descended the stairs to the common room. I could hear several voices from the top landing – one of them unfamiliar – but once I stepped into view the noise died down in an instant. Five pairs of eyes made their way to me, and the only response I could muster was to blink back at them, and to shift awkwardly.

Jace and Venser sat on two couches flanking a little table, and across from them Sorin lounged in the large, plush armchair, looking as content and comfortable as the housecats I had seen humans keep. My heart leapt when I saw Chandra, sitting up straight on another couch with her hands folded in her lap – but just as quickly as she had drawn my gaze, it alighted on the man sitting next to her. He was tall, broad – a warrior's build, and clad in a warrior's heavy blue-and-silver armor – and had thick black hair so long that he had tied it in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. At his belt, a strange whiplike weapon gleamed. When I met his steel-blue gaze he stood, smoothly, and bowed at the waist.

"Ranewen of the Tajuru," he said. His voice reminded me of Vincenius's, deep and resounding and commanding. His, however, was more gravelly, and it had all of the solemnity and none of the mirth. "My name is Gideon Jura. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, though I would also like to express my deepest sympathies as to the loss of your home. I imagine this is not an easy time for you."

Behind him, Chandra and Venser winced. Jace lowered his eyes. Sorin yawned.

I was tempted at first to correct Gideon, to tell him that I was no longer Ranewen of the Tajuru and instead just Ranewen, but it was a momentary impulse…and anyway, I knew it wasn't true. Despite the fact that my tribe was gone, they were just as much a part of me as they had always been, and they always would be. Besides, Gideon hadn't seemed to have meant any harm by the statement. I took a slow, deep breath, and allowed my brief bitterness to pass.

"You guys don't need to walk on eggshells around me, you know," I sighed, letting out the breath in an equally deep exhale. I met Gideon's gaze again, and nodded to him and smiled politely. It took effort, but I did it nonetheless. "It's good to meet you, Gideon. I appreciate your kind words."

He nodded too before sitting back down beside Chandra. I couldn't help noticing the look she shot him then, and the swiftness with which he returned it. Very suddenly, and despite myself, I had to stifle a grin.

"We found him making his way here to the compound on our way back," Sorin broke in, his voice coming low and languid from the cushioned depths of his armchair. His yellow eyes – still eerie after all this time – met mine, and he paused. "Well, _she _found him. I just got the information out of him. Apparently he's met the Eldrazi in person and lived to tell the tale, and such a fateful encounter motivated him to come find the Infinite Consortium and petition us for help." He shrugged. "Pretty convenient, wouldn't you say?"

"_Very_ convenient," Jace muttered. He was eyeing Gideon from beneath his ever-present hood, but he looked more curious than suspicious.

There was a moment's pause. "You're welcome to sit down, Rana." Venser's voice was quiet when he spoke, and when I turned to face him he patted the cushion at his side with a hesitant smile. Once I had come to sit next to him I returned that smile warmly, and his face took on a look of relief.

"Gideon, you're sure about wanting to do this?" Chandra was looking at the warrior full-on now, and with an expression of open dismay. It was a good cover for the way her hands twitched on her lap, so close to his own, and for the hint of joy you could see hidden behind her narrowed eyes – that is, if you looked closely enough. Which I did.

Gideon shook his head, and I saw his own hand twitch. Like Koth, he was remarkably good at keeping his face impassive. "_You_ are, aren't you? So why can't I?"

"Because…" She faltered, and her gaze dropped down to her lap. "Well, because you got dragged into this because of me. You would have never even heard about Zendikar if it wasn't for me, and the scroll, and…" She shook her head now too. "I just don't want you throwing yourself into the middle of this huge conflict because you feel like it's your responsibility or something."

"It _is_ my responsibility." The only time a flicker of an expression crossed Gideon's face was when he looked at Chandra – for a half-second, I caught an odd mixture of frustration and compassion. "These beings are threatening the order of the entire multiverse, and even if I've renounced my devotion to the Order of Heliud, that doesn't change who I am. And I'm not the type of man to stand by when I can do something to help, especially when people I care about are in danger." From the grin that spread across Sorin's face – out of Gideon or Chandra's line of sight, thankfully – I was sure that I wasn't the only one who had caught Gideon's pointedly affectionate look. Chandra's response to it was to blush, which cemented my certainty.

"I…guess there's nothing I can do but stop worrying about it, huh?" was all she could say. Softly, at that.

Before the two could make eyes at each other any longer, Sorin sighed and leaned forward in his chair. All traces of his previous grin were gone from his lips. "So that settles it, then." His voice was suddenly cold. "Gideon stays with us, so long as he provides the assistance he is so eager to give. And _you_, Jace, you can stop your nonsensical worrying as to my…contributions, to this group." He stood, his own elegantly embroidered cloak flowing around him like water, and flashed the mage a look that seemed to be saying a rather irritated 'I told you so.' With that, he turned his back to the room. "I'll be in my chambers if anyone finds themselves needing me. Which, as always, I don't suspect." He strode out through a side door, head held high and boots clicking against the wood as he went. Before he disappeared, though, I noticed that he had a new longsword – even more ornate than the first one, with swirls and vines and other intricate patterns decorating both its hilt and its sheath. Then he was gone, and I had no more time to appreciate it.

"He's not in the best of moods, is he?"

Venser's humor was met with a grunt from Jace, who was resting his elbow on the arm of the couch and his chin in his hand. He looked sullen. "He never is. You'll get used to it, if you hang around here long enough."

"I think he's mad at _you_, Jace," Chandra corrected. Her voice had returned to its normal, half-flippant tone, instead of the girlish sigh that she had taken on when talking to Gideon. Her gaze shifted from Jace to me and then back to Jace, and the brief grin she sent my way lifted my spirits. "What, are you two arguing _again_? You seriously need to stop pissing each other off, or we're never going to get anything done around here."

"I _know_ how to handle him." But Jace didn't sound so sure – more than anything, he sounded tired. I sympathized.

"Well, if we're not going to continue this conversation, can I…uh…go? I want to talk to Rana."

Hearing my name, my ears pricked up. I _did _want to talk to Chandra a great deal, but if we had important things still to discuss…

But Jace nodded. "Yeah, go ahead. I need to talk to you two – " he gestured at Gideon and Venser with a wave of his arm, " – anyway. I'll let you know if we need either of you again."

Throwing Gideon one last sidelong glance, Chandra stood, and made her way over to my couch. She stopped in front of me and offered a hand. The smile she wore was a welcome sight.

"Come on, missy. We have a lot of catching up to do."

Venser smiled at me as I took her hand and stood, and as we made our way over to the stairs I thought I caught Jace's blue eyes on me as well. Before I had time to analyze his expression, though, we were bounding up the steps – I had forgotten to let go of Chandra's hand – and hurrying down the hall toward her bedroom, so fast that I found myself flushed and out of breath.

* * *

><p>"So," the pyromancer said, "tell me everything."<p>

And I did. We had settled down into the two chairs in front of her fireplace – the dominant fixture in her room, and a terribly appropriate one at that – and she, in turn, leaned forward to listen as I talked myself hoarse. It took quite awhile for me to explain it all. I had to stop briefly to compose myself when I got to the parts both about Elspeth and about the Eldrazi, but Chandra was an attentive and sympathetic audience. She reached out to hold my hand at those difficult moments, and once they had passed she sat right back, hands folded over her knees and eyes wide, and simply let me talk. The openness of the expression on her face gave me some small measure of comfort. Once I had finished, I sank back into my own chair and sighed. It wasn't as cushy as the furniture downstairs, but it was something.

"Do you really think we have a chance?" I had been trying not to let my negative emotions get the best of me, but after recounting the tale of everything that had happened, it was hard to hold them back. I shook my head, slowly. "They just…obliterated my home. Completely. Mana and all. How can even _fifty _planeswalkers hold their own against them, much less, what…eight? We have eight. Against three giant demons, and their armies of hellspawn."

"Hey, don't think like that!" I looked up sharply at the sound of her voice, and when I did I was surprised at how…alight Chandra's eyes were. _Isn't this supposed to be a somber topic? _She clucked her tongue chastisingly, and shook her head. "You're supposed to be little miss cheery, right? So act it! We need your optimism, Rana, even if it's a little, uh…misplaced, sometimes. I overheard Jace talking about how you barreled straight ahead on Mirrodin, and I mean, come on! Look at where that got you! You saved Elspeth's life!" I blinked as she bent forward and grabbed my hand again, lifting it to her eye level. "Yeah, the Eldrazi are insanely powerful. Yeah, they've already done a ton of damage, and are probably going to do a ton more. But us planeswalkers aren't so bad ourselves! You've only seen a few small battles – You haven't seen us _really _in action. Maybe then you'll change your mind, huh?"

I shrugged. It was hard to be morose when you had a bright-eyed, beaming redhead staring you in the face, and damn it all if I didn't feel a smile coming on. "Maybe. Do I want to, though? I think I'd be nervous about getting caught up in the crossfire."

Chandra giggled and shook her head again. "No, trust me, you want to. They _can_ get a little dangerous, but…if you're not one of the combatants, why the hells not? Real planeswalker duels are exciting to watch."

Gently, I took my hand from hers, and rested it on her knee. I chuckled. "Maybe for you, but I think I'll pass on that offer. I'd rather keep my mortal body intact, thank you very much."

Chandra rolled her eyes and swatted my leg. "Oh, you're no fun."

"Ow! Hey!" I winced. _That stung. _"Me? You're the one who's no fun, not telling me about this new arrival of ours. You both were staring like you were going to eat each other."

Chandra's newly red face took on an indignant expression then, but she couldn't help letting out a snort of laughter. Nervous laughter, from the sound of it. "What, Gideon? We…we've known each other a long time, that's all. I met him on Kephalai, and we helped each other out on Diraden-"

"Oh, save it, Chandra. I've seen those looks plenty. I've given and gotten them a few times, too – Hells, I probably give them to Jace whenever he walks in the room." I giggled, and cocked a teasing eyebrow. Now _I_ could feel the blush creeping into my own cheeks at the mention of Jace, but my point had been made, and that was that. "You two have a thing, and everyone who was in that room knows it. So stop trying to hide it and just spill!"

There was a long pause, then a long sigh, then a huff and a folding of arms across chest, and then finally Chandra relented. "Damn you, Rana." I could see the smile tugging at the corners of her lips, though, and I knew that she wouldn't be able to stall it for very long. "Alright, fine. I…like him. A lot. I liked him before, but he and I parted ways awhile back on bad terms, and I thought that was enough to make me forget about him." Her voice softened a little, though I would put gold on the fact that she hadn't meant it to. "Well, it wasn't. I couldn't keep him off my mind, and when I saw him on the streets today, it was like…" She held her hands out in front of her, palms up. Her hair swayed into her face as she shook her head. "I don't know, it was like a…a dream, almost. Everything slowed down, and my legs just started running toward him without me even knowing it." Her hands fell limply into her lap. "He told me that he followed me to Zendikar. Because he was _worried_ about me. He's changed since we last met, too – He denounced the order that he used to belong to, and took advantage of the chaos I left it in to reform it and make it less oppressive. He did everything that I thought he wouldn't. And now _I _have no clue what _I'm_ supposed to do." She laughed, quietly, and the mingled emotions in her eyes sent a jolt of _something _straight to my heart.

Before I knew what was going on, and before I could stop myself, I was leaning forward to hug her.

"You're supposed to enjoy your time with him while you still have it," I said, just as quietly. I could feel her body stiffen in surprise at my sudden embrace, but she quickly relaxed, and her arms tentatively reached up to wrap around me and pat me on the back. When I kept going, my voice came out muffled from against her shoulder. "You were right, you know."

"About what?" Chandra sounded puzzled. Understandably so, considering how I had just tackled her. Still though, the gesture didn't seem like it had been unwelcome.

"About holding onto that optimism of mine. Venser told me that yesterday, and you're telling me it now. There's too many things for me to do for me to keep getting all…down like this, you know?" I pulled away and hesitated, finding her reddish-brown eyes with my own. "For instance, you getting to be with someone you care about. I can't be selfish. Yes, I have to avenge my tribe, but…there are people still living that I can fight for, too. Aren't there?"

Chandra opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. She tilted her head as she regarded me. "I…Rana, I…"

I shook my head. "No, it's the truth. I need to keep my chin up. Maybe I still haven't really accepted it, but…" I smiled, and shrugged. "...you guys all seem to need my help. Or at least appreciate it. And if I can do even just one more thing for you all that matters, then, well," I stood up, stepping away from the chair and closer to the door, and I saw Chandra's eyes follow me there. "I'll be happy."

"Where are you going?" she asked. Her voice was still quiet, and she hadn't risen from her chair. She looked even more puzzled than she had sounded before.

At that my smile widened, and I reached out to place a hand on the doorknob. "To see Sorin. He knows the most about the Eldrazi out of all of us, so if I want to learn things and help out more around here, I figure he's the best place to start, right?"

But I didn't give Chandra a chance to respond – I was in determined mode, and nothing was going to delay me now that I had my heart set on a goal. I flashed her a grin before she could open her mouth to speak, and then I pulled the door open, stepped over the threshold, and shut it with a tight _click_ behind me.

"_You could try overly emotional," _Venser had said. Well, here I was, giving it a shot. And already I felt better.

With purpose, I strode my way down the hall and to the stairs.

* * *

><p>It took me awhile to find Sorin's chambers, but with a little direction from a passing guard, I finally did.<p>

His room was large and long, with windows as big as those in the common room, and twice as many bookshelves. There was a couch across from his four-poster bed, facing his fireplace – bigger than Chandra's by half – and there he sat, legs crossed over one another and a book in his hand. He didn't respond when I knocked on the open door, or look up when I entered. Only when I was halfway across the room toward him did he say anything.

"And what business could you possibly have with me, kitten?"

"_Kitten_?" I stopped. I probably shouldn't have even acknowledged the nickname, but the oddness of it forced my tongue into motion. When I resumed my walking and came to stand in front of him, I planted my hands on my hips. "What, is that your way of declaring affection?"

"Hardly. You're a tiny mewling thing who's just now whetting her little claws and teeth, and until then, you need the help of your betters to keep you safe. Hence, kitten. Now what do you want?"

The nonchalance of his tone and the way he _still _didn't look up from his book – not even counting what he had just said – infuriated me. I clenched my fists at my sides, and took a deep, steadying breath. "I want," I said, calmly as I could manage, "for you to help me, if that's at all possible."

"Help you?" Finally Sorin looked up, though only briefly. He brushed aside a lock of powder-white hair from his eyes, met my gaze, and chuckled. A condescending sound. "Interesting. And what assistance do you think I can provide, then? Transformation into a vampire? If that's the case, then I can _certainly_ help you."

I gulped. The darkness that had slipped into his voice crawled across my skin, and the way he was now grinning at me, baring his gleaming fangs, sent chills down my spine. _Relax, Rana. __**Relax**__. He can probably smell fear…or something like that. _"No. That's, uh, definitely not it." I shook my head, and slowly, I lowered myself down onto the couch beside him. His eyes never left me as I did. "I wanted to ask you about the Eldrazi. I...I want to know what I'm facing. If I want to make any difference at all in this…thing we're starting, then I need to know all that you know. Everything." I steeled my gaze when I turned to look at him, and clasped my hands together tightly in my lap.

But Sorin merely laughed. Suddenly, I was aware of how attractive the sound was as it vibrated through me, from my head to my toes along my nerves, like fire. I found myself staring into those yellow eyes of his, flecked with smoky grey, longer than I should have, longer than I knew was safe – and then half a second later he was just _there_, right in front of me. I couldn't look away. I couldn't, not even as my heart began to race and something inside of my head screamed frantically. My body recoiled as he bent low over me, his hands gripping the arm of the couch on either side of my head. I felt myself bump into something solid then, and I couldn't back away any further.

"Give me a reason why I should tell you," he growled, "and we'll see." I could feel the warmth of his breath on my face like a thing alive. His lips were mere inches away from my own, but the mixture of lust and terror that I felt now paralyzed me. I couldn't move. I knew that he was trying the same trick from before back on Zendikar, but that knowledge wasn't enough to stop his…magic? Was this magic? Or something else? Whatever it was, knowing that he was doing it didn't help me in the least. If anything, it only made me more panicked – and now I was sure that he could see my pulse fluttering in my neck, or hear my heartbeat as loudly as I did. _Shit. __**Shit**__._

"N-" I tried to speak, but my mouth felt like it had gone numb. It was a struggle to make my lips form words. "N-No…" He was so close to me now that I could feel the brush of his cloak against my sides, featherlight, and the tickle of his hair as it fell down around his face and mine. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to stab him. I cursed myself silently for not having my hunting knife on me, but I was wearing a dress, and I hadn't thought to strap the damn thing to my thigh. Not in the compound. I was supposed to be safe here.

"Come now, Ranewen, I'm waiting." I could almost feel his lips as they moved, and the sensation turned my blood to ice. His voice was low, deep, dark, smooth as silk and so utterly intoxicating…

"_NO_!"

The second I flashed back to the moment when I had broken away from him before, I repeated the motion. My hands pushed against his breastplate in a shove, hard as I could muster, and it forced him to sit back heavily on his knees. I curled against the arm of the couch, breathing hard. My legs came up to my chest. I hugged them tightly.

"Damn you, Sorin," I croaked. "I'm not your little _plaything_. Stop doing that to me!"

But all the vampire could do was shrug. He pursed his lips and widened his eyes, giving his face a sickeningly innocent expression that made my blood boil. "What? I was simply asking for you to give me a reason. I'm not going to help you for nothing, you know."

"That's a lie," I hissed. My arms came up to fold over my breasts protectively, and I took a deep breath in an attempt to quell my shaking. "You were trying to get something from me that I'm not willing to give. Just because you can have your choice of whatever women you want here in Ravnica doesn't mean that you can just try to…to _take_ me, like that. I'm not like them." My face reddened.

At this Sorin barked a harsh laugh, and he leaned forward again, toward me, which sent me scooting as far away from him as I possibly could. It wasn't much, though, since his body blocked me from climbing off the couch, and I was already backed into a corner. "Ah, kitten, didn't I tell you before not to get a swelled head?" His brow arched imperiously. "Just because you have a pair or two of eyes on you doesn't mean that everyone wants a piece. You're just a backwoods elf girl who was lucky enough to be born with the spark. I've met plenty of women who are far more attractive than you, far more…interesting." Before I had time to be offended by the comment, he reached his hand out to caress my cheek. I flinched. "No, the only part of you I want…" he trailed his fingertips to my jawline and down the length of my exposed throat, "…is _this_. But unless you give it to me willingly, then there's nothing I can do. Beleren sleeps with one eye trained on me already, and if I do anything to hurt his pretty little pet, then I'll never hear the end of it." I made a small strangled noise and moved to slap his hand away from me, but he drew it back before I could. My attempt seemed to amuse him, and he chuckled. "The only thing keeping me here in this _fine company _is my knowledge of the Eldrazi, and if I give that to you, then I'm as good as useless to them. They may respect me, but they don't trust me in the least. I know. I see it in their eyes every time I look at them. Powerful as I may be, no one wants to work with a _vampire_." In different circumstances I might have felt sorry for him then, sympathized with his now-bitter tone or with the strained look that passed across his face for an instant – But no, not today. Not after what he had tried to do, or what he had said.

"So there's nothing I can do, then." I took advantage of the fact that Sorin had straightened up as he spoke last, and hastily stood up off of the couch. I smoothed my dress with both hands. "There's no way I'm going to get any information out of you, unless I want to turn undead and lose my free will. That's what you're saying, isn't it?"

"Perhaps." Sorin relaxed into the cushions, stretching his legs out now that I was gone. "Or perhaps I would be willing to part with _some_ information, for the right price."

_Some _information. What did he mean by that? And for that matter, what in the world could he possibly be willing to take from me, if not my life? I thought for a long moment, staring past him and out the window beside his bed, and then at once an idea came to me. I turned back to him, eyes wide. "Sorin. I learned some unique spells from spending time in the swamps of Zendikar, awhile ago. You use black magic, right?"

He scoffed and folded his hands behind his head. "You think that any of your wild, unrefined tricks would be useful to me? You're even more foolish than I thought."

I let my breath out in a huff. "Yes, I think my _magic_ would be plenty useful to you. My rifts helped best you in combat before, didn't they? I have more than that, too. I have all kinds of spells known only to the people who live around the swamps, or the travelers who brave them. I would teach you every single one if you just…told me something. Anything." I did my best to put aside my anger – momentarily, of course – and gave Sorin my sweetest, most entreating look. "Please? Come on, you have to say yes. Let me try, just this once."

Sorin chuckled again, but from the look in his eyes I knew I had won. A wry grin curled his lips as he pushed himself upright and onto his feet in one swift motion, and then he sauntered his way over to me, hand darting out lightning-quick to seize my arm. I froze. My eyes stared up into his, and my mouth dropped open to say something that my brain never quite formulated.

"Well then. If you truly want to prove to me how powerful your spells are, then test them against me now…alone. No dashing blue-eyed hero to swoop in and save you, no handicaps, no nothing." His grin widened into something wicked. "Just you, and me. That's my final offer. Take it or leave it."

It took me a moment or two to recover from that brief, horrible instant where I thought he was going to turn me then and there, but when I had cleared my head, I straightened my shoulders and stood tall. Sorin's hand still gripped my arm, but I tried to ignore the almost painful pressure. "Fine. I accept your offer." However stupid this choice might end up being, I knew that it was the best chance I had right now. I would accept whatever consequences it brought later.

Sorin's grin widened even further, and my heart began to beat double-time when I saw that his fangs were now on full, menacing display. "Good. Then let's take this somewhere where we won't be disturbed, shall we?"

Before I could ask him where in the nine hells he intended to go, his free hand molded the fabric of reality into a liquid, dripping portal, and he pulled me inside for a dizzying rush of a journey through the Blind Eternities.


	16. Chapter 16

When the tumult around me came to a stop, I realized that we were somewhere I definitely didn't want to be.

As Sorin had yanked me out of the Blind Eternities, I had felt the distinct…shift, in the power of the aether surrounding us both. In the Blind Eternities, mana was everywhere and every_thing_ at once. It was black, and white, and red and green and blue and sometimes so ethereal that there were no words to describe its shape. It was thick and smoldering, ice-cold and rushing and brilliant in the way it covered you like a form-fitting curtain of pure energy. But here, in this new place – no, in the second before I had even _reached_ this new place – I realized it was nothing but soul-swallowing darkness. Part of me relished in the feel of it as it seeped into my bones, but the more logical part instantly recoiled, as if struck. It didn't take long for the horror of the situation to dawn on all of me.

_There's only black mana here. Sorin's completely in his element._

And indeed the vampire was grinning, letting go of me to spread his arms wide as he surveyed his surroundings. There was little here but an endless grey bog, with murky water that soaked my sandals and squelched between my toes, and a sky that roiled with dark thunderheads above. It was barely visible between the branches that hung, clawlike, from a forest of dead trees, but I felt like it was bearing down on me with all its weight.

"Well then, I suppose it's time to see if the little kitten has any bite to her, hmmm?"

I turned to him, barely able to suppress a snarl. "Where have you taken us, Sorin?"

But my only response for a good long moment was a smile, a sight that curdled my blood like sour milk. "Oh? You're asking _me_? And here I thought you were getting along so well with that artificer boy. Why not go and ask him? I do believe this is where he mentioned that he was from."

My anger dwindled for a moment as I registered my surprise, and then began to rack my brain furiously for the name that Venser had told me several days ago. "This is…" I paused, and shook my head. "This is…Urborg?"

Sorin nodded, still smiling. "Precisely. Though I suppose it doesn't really matter – We're not going to be here long." He chuckled. The sound sent shivers rolling down my spine. "Stay still, and I promise it won't be longer than ten seconds."

I could see that his hand was falling to the hilt of his sword – which I hadn't noticed before, hidden as it was beneath his voluminous cloak – and I instinctively stepped back a few feet. The heels of my sandals squished in the muck. "You wish." I tried my best to sound brave, but unfortunately, the little quaver in my voice gave me away. Sorin's smile turned nearly feral as he eyed me, and I felt a sickness begin to grow in the pit of my stomach.

"Stay away," I snapped. I pulled black mana to me like a magnet, and instantly little wisps of dark smoke began to curl around my hands and up my arms, like vines. It felt good, but it wasn't enough. "Come any closer with that and I swear you'll regret it."

Sorin barked a laugh, cold and cruel and scathing as every hell. "Trying to talk tough to _me_? You've got guts, I'll give you that." I opened my mouth to reply, but before I could get a single word past my lips Sorin disappeared, and a momentary jolt of panic silenced me. The vampire's voice echoed around the clearing in a lingering manner that brought to mind thoughts of restless spirits, though there was no visible body that it could have come from. A thick black haze began to swirl and settle around me. With a great deal of uneasiness, I noted that it had come out of nowhere, and that it was different from the black mana I was still calling to me…

"Too bad guts won't get you anywhere when they're spilled all over the ground."

Suddenly, I felt a chill against the length of my throat. An instant later Sorin materialized behind me with one arm wrapped tight around my waist in an almost caress, and a shudder of revulsion ran through me at the feel of it, at the violation. Then something stung, and when I chanced a quick look downward I saw little red rivulets running down my chest from where his blade pressed into my neck. Fear coursed through me like wildfire. _No. __**No. **__He can't win that fast, I can't let him-_

"Well, that was no fun." Sorin's voice was bored, and he let out a long, deep sigh as he began to drum the fingers of his one hand against my hipbone. "Pathetic, really. You didn't even get to cast a single spell. I'm disappointed."

Instead of letting my mounting panic win, I growled low in my throat and felt the sound vibrate against his sword. His body stiffened ever so slightly behind me. I felt a little braver. "Good thing I'm not done fighting, then."

Before he had a chance to react, I let loose with some of my pent-up mana in an explosion that covered us both in blinding violet light. Though he seemed otherwise unfazed by the release of power, Sorin stumbled backward just a single step, which was enough for me to duck beneath his sword arm and make off at a dead sprint toward the treeline. I half-expected him to follow me, so when I could run no more and had to double over, panting, it was to my surprise that I saw him standing in the exact spot where I had left him. The expression on his face was utterly unreadable. I noticed that a new, tiny smile was beginning to curl the corners of his lips, but I couldn't tell if it was one of amusement or irritation. I hoped for the former.

"Very good," he drawled, and he lifted his sword slowly to lick away the blood from its blade. _My _blood. I choked. He leered at me when his yellow eyes found mine. "I was hoping you wouldn't give up so easily."

Having fully regained my breath, I stood up straight and clenched my fists at my sides. My eyes narrowed. "I _don't _give up." My heart was racing, and it took a moment of feeling my pulse throb hard and fast in my neck to remember that I was injured there. I directed a fraction of my attention to the shallow cut, and one spell and a few seconds later I was whole, as if it had never existed.

"If that's the case, then show me what you can do." Sorin let his sword drop lazily to his side and he took a step forward, eyes never leaving mine. "I'm waiting." He took another, and another, and as he moved toward me I moved away, backing up until I felt the rough press of bark against my shoulder. I stumbled around the tree and kept on moving, trying to clear my thoughts as I did. The unhurried, deliberate pace of his steps, however, was making me more anxious by the second, and I found it increasingly harder to focus on channeling my mana. When I bumped into another solid object, I turned and found myself up against a tightly-knit cluster of trees and the thorns that twisted between them like some nightmarish cobweb. I looked around in all directions, and realized that it fenced me in everywhere but straight ahead, from where I had come. I was trapped.

And still, Sorin continued his advance toward me.

Dread nearly ripped me apart in that instant, and I screamed. I had intended to yell something intimidating, or at least to tell him again to stay away, but instead the sound came out wordless and primal – the terrified, bloodcurdling sound of something that knew its death was imminent. Sorin wouldn't kill me. He _couldn't _– He said so himself, that he had to stay with this group and that hurting me would draw Jace's ire, make him an enemy in all of their eyes. So…I really shouldn't be so afraid. What _was_ there to be afraid of? He was supposed to be my ally. I hated him, hated the way that he looked at me like prey and the way that he touched me like I was a thing, hated those horrible dark gleaming yellow eyes of his – a predator's eyes – but despite all of that, we were working toward the same goal. We were working _together_. So why did I feel so afraid now, like everything was about to go to hells?

At once, I knew.

Just because Sorin couldn't kill me didn't mean that he couldn't make my world agony.

I screamed again, and put all of my strength into latching my rift spell onto that thrice-damned sword of his. The dark smoke that had been building and swelling into a cloud around me seemed to expand even further, and I could feel the raw power that it imbued in me as I cast the spell with a cry. It tingled my skin as it passed through me and out, and there was a concussive blast, and I looked up just in time to see the rift burst into being right in front of Sorin's face…

…except there _was_ no rift. The air around Sorin shimmered and rippled, but not with the eldritch distortion that my spell brought about – it was with my spell itself as it drifted apart, impotent, to return its energy back into the aether.

Sorin laughed and continued walking forward.

I let out a wail, and desperately I cast the spell again, and again. Each time the ground shook with the force of it, and each time there was a humming that permeated the air between Sorin and I, but the instant before the spell should have manifested into a consuming rift, it simply…collapsed in on itself, and dissolved. Sorin's sword seemed to glow with a faint light each time this happened. By the time I had finished my third unsuccessful attempt, he was mere yards away from reaching me, and I was so dizzy with fear and exhaustion from my mana expenditure that my vision began to blur.

"Why?" I gasped. I felt my legs tremble beneath me, and with a sucking splash I fell onto my knees in the marsh. I grasped onto a drooping, dead limb of one of the trees above me, and used it as a crutch to pull myself back to my feet. It broke the instant that I put weight on it, sending me tumbling back into the stagnant water. "Wh-why isn't my spell working? What…did you do?"

I felt Sorin's hand take hold of the front of my dress, and then a second later I was being lifted up off my feet, into the air. His ashen face swam in front of me, but even through all that, I could still see his eyes, piercing into me as easily as a knife cuts through butter. I struggled weakly against his grip. Fighting to shake off my daze, I reached up and grabbed the arm that held me with both of mine, but it was of little use. His touch seemed to drain me, to pull away not only my physical strength, but my will. After a few moments of flailing and kicking, I fell limp in his grasp. My hands still clutched him as tightly as I could manage.

"Dear little kitten," he clucked his tongue disapprovingly, "you think I didn't learn from our last encounter? You only seem to be proficient with one or two spells, so of course it was no trouble for me to simply enchant my sword with protection from your brand of, ah…_destructive_ magic." I could feel the heat of his breath on my face – like before, back in his room – but I couldn't feel the pull of his ensorcelling magic. Either he wasn't trying to snare me, or I was too exhausted to sense it. "I must say, if this is the best effort that you can put forth, then you are less than useless to me. Consider yourself to have lost our wager."

The way his voice had suddenly lost all of its humor, regardless of how dark and unpleasant that humor had been, set my body quaking as I hung in his grasp. "No…" I moaned. "No, Sorin, please, I-"

"Although," he interrupted, and my vision cleared enough to lock onto the gruesome smirk that crossed his face as he met my gaze, "there is one thing that I am willing to give you, for challenging me as you did.

"A lesson."

His body shifted, and then he drew back his free arm to stab his sword straight through me, beneath my shoulder, right above my heart.

I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

It felt like hours that I dangled there, impaled on his blade, and for the entirety of that time the only thing that I knew was agony. It tore at me, crushed me, sent me reeling into alternating light and darkness as my head spun and my muscles clenched around the foreign object in me, and I didn't even have the luxury of being able to scream, or to cry. Something unknown held me back.

Finally, I slid from the weapon and fell like a ragdoll into the bog. As sensations other than pure searing pain returned, I felt the heat of my blood flowing out and pooling across my body, along with the sickly cold of the mud and muck. A single thought entered my mind.

_I was wrong. I'm going to die._

There was a wet, ripping sound, and as I stared straight up into the spinning expanse of dead boughs and dark sky above me, I saw Sorin push up the sleeve of his cloak, and then the edge of his bloodied sword pass across the flesh of his forearm. Dark blood dripped from the wound. He stared at it for a long moment, and then turned to look down at me.

"Drink this," he said. His tone was flat, with no emotion whatsoever. He knelt down beside me, sweeping his other arm out to keep his cloak from draping into the bog. I felt a few drops of his blood fall onto my face as he reached out his injured arm to me, right in front of my lips, and I noticed that it was almost…cold.

"W…wha…?" I didn't have the strength to say anything more, and anyway, it hurt like the nine hells to breathe, let alone speak. It felt like I had been burned where he had stabbed me, and the flesh all around it felt like it was still aflame with hellsfire.

"I said," he growled, "drink.

Even in my current state, every fiber of my being cried out in opposition to his command. I knew that there were good reasons for me to be feeling this way – likely many – but right now I just…couldn't think of them. I was slipping away, inch by inch, and as I did it took increasingly more effort to simply focus myself on what was in front of me.

"Last chance," he said. When I still made no move, he pushed himself into a crouch, drawing his arm back toward his chest and away from me, and my only hope of life along with it.

"No," I croaked, abruptly. With an effort I didn't think I was capable of, I reached out with my uninjured arm and grabbed him. I pulled him roughly to me, and after a brief moment of hesitation, I resolved myself to my decision, and sealed my lips around the gash on his arm.

One minute that felt like an eternity later, Sorin yanked himself away. Everything around me, even my thoughts, seemed somehow clearer, but…his blood still clung thick to my teeth and tongue, and to the back of my throat. Spirits, I wondered if I would ever be able to wash away the taste of it, that sweet and metallic harshness that somehow tasted different than my own blood did whenever I accidentally bit down on my cheek. A wave of nausea washed over me, and I tilted my head to the side and retched.

I was too caught up in my anguish that I barely noticed Sorin scoop me up into his arms until I was already nestled against his chest. When the flare of pain and sickness finally passed, I strained to look up at him, though my muscles shook as I did so. His eyes were fixed straight ahead, narrowed and unblinking. The steel in their gaze made me shiver.

"Sleep," he whispered hollowly, and at once I found myself unable to disobey. My eyes closed against my own will, and an instant later I was drifting away, floating on a cloud of nothingness until I found myself entangled in dreams – of blood, of thick dark hair splayed out around me, and of a long-forgotten face that hovered before my eyes, pale as death.

In my mind, at last, I screamed.


	17. Chapter 17

When I awoke, nothing hurt anymore.

That was the first thing I noticed when my eyes slid open, blinking to bring the world around me back into focus. No pain. Not even a little. I reached up with my uninjured right arm to gingerly touch my wounded shoulder, but to my immense surprise, there _was_ no wound. The flesh was knit together so tightly that there wasn't a hint of a scar, or even so much as a rough patch. I tested the motion of that arm, stretching it and rotating it and flexing the muscles there, and it worked as good as it ever had. Better, even. _How in the nine hells…?_

Before I could ponder on it further, though, I suddenly became aware of my surroundings. I was lying on my back, with a pillow beneath my head and a blanket covering me, and atop that blanket, open across my stomach, was a rather large book. I picked it up and flipped through the pages. Though I couldn't read the script – hells, I had never learned how to read, period – I could tell from the succession of pictures that it was a history, detailing Ravnica's past in artwork just as much as words. When I closed it and set it down beside me, I noticed that I had been placed on one of the Consortium common room's large couches. This must have been where I spent the night.

But who brought me here? Why not my room? And especially, why the book? It looked like it had been placed there for a reason.

Then, another thought, one that made my blood run cold – _Sorin._

_What did he do to me?_

"Rana?"

I didn't have a chance to worry any further, because when I looked up and turned, I saw Chandra standing at the foot of the stairs, with Gideon close behind. Jace and Venser were there too, but they both slipped past her to come down and stand in the room. All of them were looking at me with a mix of curiosity and mild confusion, and for whatever reason, their collective attention made me blush. I sat up. The motion made the blanket slide off of me a little. When it did, I noticed that I was still wearing my new green dress, and that – to my further anxiety – it was completely free of rips and bloodstains.

_What __**happened**__ last night?_

"What're you doing here?" The pyromancer, too, descended the last couple of stairs, and took a few steps in my direction, throwing her hands up. She twisted her lips into an exasperated expression, but I could see the relief behind it. "We were looking for you all last night, but we couldn't find you. Sorin was gone too, so we got worried."

"Oh?" A hundred thoughts raced through my brain, some of them confused, some of them worried, some of them outright afraid. I didn't know what to say. "I, uh…I'm sorry."

"What happened, Ranewen?" It was Jace who spoke this time. He stepped up beside Chandra, and then continued on until he was just a few feet away from me, so close that I could breathe in the scent of him – which, I realized, I had never noticed before, oddly enough. It was sweet. His voice was calm, but the way his brow furrowed, the hard set of his jaw, and the narrowing of his eyes and lips alike all meant business, and I suddenly realized that I was in a position of rather significant power. Tell the truth about what happened yesterday – or at least, what I _remembered_ to have happened – and I could get Sorin in deep trouble. Keep my mouth shut, and I would ensure his continued membership in the group, much less his position as its co-_de facto_ leader.

I remembered the glow of his eyes, and I shivered. I remembered the feel of his blade sinking into and through me, and my muscles tensed.

Then I remembered the taste of his blood in my mouth, and I felt something jerk deep inside me, in my chest. A horrible sinking feeling grew in the pit of my stomach. My pulse quickened, and it took every ounce of will I had to keep my expression calm.

"I…" I swallowed hard. I paused for a long moment, and then at last, I shook my head. My hair tumbled into my eyes, and I moved to brush it away with trembling hands, which I prayed to the spirits that Jace couldn't see. "I came back from having a talk with him, and I was looking through your bookshelves and decided to sit down and read. Well, sort of. I _can't _read, so I was just…looking at all the pictures. I got comfortable, and I guess I must have been tired enough to fall asleep at some point. That's…really, that's it. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you all." My voice didn't sound convincing to me in the least, and from the look on Jace's face, it seemed like it didn't sound that way to him either. Dread crept its way up my spine.

Strangely, though, he didn't call me out on what I was sure that he knew was a lie. His voice was quiet, unreadable. "Chandra said you two were talking about the Eldrazi. Is that true?"

I forced myself to laugh, and then lifted myself up into a sitting position to rest my elbows playfully on my knees. If Jace was going to give me an inch, then damn it, I was going to do my best to take a mile instead. I gave the handsome mage my most attractive smile. "Jeez, Jace, what's with the twenty questions? Yes, we talked about the Eldrazi. He didn't give me much information, though. It was like pulling teeth."

Jace cocked an eyebrow. His hands clenched into fists at his sides and then unclenched, just once. He let out his breath in a deep sigh. "I…see."

When I looked away from him for a moment, to my surprise, it appeared that Chandra had been completely duped. She came closer to lean against the back of one of the couches across from me, and moments later Gideon did the same at her side. He was frowning, but he said nothing. Chandra, on the other hand, was smiling, and she chuckled lightly, adjusting her river of red hair over one shoulder and then pulling a few loose strands out from beneath her goggles. "Well, I coulda told you that, Rana. Hells, I was _going_ to, but you walked out on me!"

I feigned a smile in return, and for some reason my eyes slid past Jace, Chandra, and Gideon alike, and came to settle on Venser. The way he met my gaze in earnest gave me pause, and for a moment I felt as if he were trying to tell me something silently, to… encourage me, perhaps. I sucked in a quiet breath. I still didn't know what had happened after Sorin had forced me unconscious, and it was quite possible that whatever it was, it was bad. _Very_ bad. With a chill, I realized that I didn't know exactly how vampires perpetuated their species, how they turned other people – I had always assumed it was just with a bite to the neck, but…I had drunk the man's blood, for the spirits' sakes. He had commanded me to sleep, too, with a single word, and I had been powerless to disobey. Yes, Sorin was clearly a master of blood magic, and yes, I was most certainly _not_ dead, but…the cold, insistent tug in the center of my chest spoke volumes, and in a sinister tone that I drew no pleasure from hearing.

For a moment longer I kept my eyes locked with Venser's, and I could feel my resolve weakening even further.

Just as I was about to open my mouth to speak, a familiar voice drawled from the side doorway, and I froze outright in fear.

"You called, Beleren?"

Sorin sauntered his way into the room, clad as usual in his dark leathers and long black cloak. His boots clicked against the wood as he moved, and with each step he took closer to me, I drew further and further into the cushions at my back. I only realized that I was doing this when Jace stepped in front of me, a protective gesture that at once startled me and brought a flush to my cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Venser strolling casually over to where our group stood until he came to stop behind my couch, and leaned his arms on its back and his head on his arms. I could feel his breath against my ear.

"Don't worry. I know something happened, but we'll talk about it later. Just try to relax."

Relief washed through me when I heard his words, and I had to stop myself from turning and throwing my arms around the artificer's neck in a tight hug. I had been hoping beyond hope that I wouldn't have to suffer in ignorance alone, and for once, my prayers seemed to have been answered. Regardless of how much better I felt, though, I couldn't hold back the brief panic that jolted through me at the sight of Sorin's sword, bouncing lightly against his hip as he walked. I felt Venser's hand on my shoulder for just a moment, and that calmed me enough for me to resume a normal breathing pattern. I closed my eyes, and forced myself to do as Venser said. _Relax_.

"I did," Jace answered, and when he spoke his voice was like ice. I flinched at the sound of it, though I took some comfort from the fact that it was directed not toward me, but toward the person I most dreaded seeing. Hells, I dreaded everything about Sorin right now, even just the thought of him. "I believe it's time to decide who you'll be taking with you to Grixis when you leave tomorrow."

Sorin's eyes slid to mine even as he flung himself down into his usual armchair, and I physically recoiled from them. They were wide, like a cat's. _Predator's eyes. _"Oh, well, good. I already have an idea of who that might be."

I returned Sorin's gaze with as defiant a look as I could muster, but I could still feel my body start to quake. Venser's hand returned to my shoulder, and Jace took one step backward, toward me. He was unable to keep the venom from his voice entirely, but at least he was able to keep it down to a reasonably acceptable level. "And?"

"And I'm choosing the little elf, of course." Sorin's lips curled in a cross between a smile and a sneer. My heart pounded, so hard that I could hear my blood thundering in my ears. "Grixis is a world of pure black mana. _She_ uses black mana more than any of the rest of you do, so she would be the most likely to…subsist, in a place like that. I was thinking of teaching her, even – helping her hone her spells. She needs the practice, doesn't she?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid she's coming with me. I already decided. We're going to need a healer on this mission, and I'm pretty out of practice. So, sorry, but you'll have to pick someone else."

My jaw dropped just a little, and Sorin's eyes narrowed. Now Jace was the one I severely wanted to hug. He stood tall and straight, arms folded over his chest, and even though he had turned his back to me and I could no longer see the expression on his face, the air he gave off was no less implacable.

"Ah," the vampire said simply. When he spoke, he made sure that we could all see his fangs, long and sharp and gleaming perfectly white. Abruptly, an image of blood on those fangs – my blood, I just knew it – flashed through my mind. A needle of fear shot through my heart. The thought was…just a recollection, from when he had licked his blade after cutting my neck. That was all it was. I was sure of it. Still though, I instinctively drew closer to the back of the couch, toward Venser.

Sorin sighed, and then flicked his hand dismissively in our direction. "Fine, then. It matters not who else comes with me, so long as I have two companions and-"

"I'll go," Gideon said suddenly.

Sorin frowned, his brow darting up his forehead. The rest of us turned to look at Gideon, and Chandra bristled at his side.

"Wait, you…you really want to go _there_? To _Grixis_?" She didn't sound angry or indignant, merely baffled. One of her hands alighted on his arm as she spoke, and at her touch he looked down into her eyes, patiently. "That place is a shithole. There's nothing there but zombies and skeletons and…other disgusting, dead things. It's going to be just like Diraden!"

"Exactly," he said. He placed one gentle hand overtop hers, and at the gesture her gaze softened and her shoulders slumped. Her lips parted ever so slightly, as if she wanted to speak but didn't know the words to say. "Even though they aren't the same by a long shot, I still believe that my experience on that plane will help me get by on Grixis. Yours too, Chandra. You should come with me."

"But I…" After a long second of staring into Gideon's solemn blue gaze she faltered, and at last she sagged hopelessly with her head against his shoulder. She exhaled deeply. "Aw, hells, alright. Fine. You win." She paused, and then cocked an eyebrow at him, lips morphing into a scowl. "But you can't let any zombies get into my tent while I'm sleeping and chew on my head, okay?"

Gideon chuckled. The sound rumbled across the room, like a roll of thunder, and he shook his head so that his dark hair – loose down his back this time – brushed lightly against both of his shoulders. "Fine. Just so long as you don't get yourself into any trouble, then we have a deal."

"So I guess that means I'm coming with you two, huh?" Venser was still leaning against the back of the couch, and close as I was to him, I could feel the movement as he tilted his head to the side.

Jace turned to face the both of us and nodded. His expression softened when he met my gaze and saw the gratitude there, and, for once – for the first time, perhaps – I didn't feel embarrassed when he saw me blush. "Yeah. This is going to be a bit of an, uh…" He tangled his fingers through his hair on one side, mussing it, "…an undercover mission, so we're going to have to go to Dravhoc district and pick up some clothes to help us blend in. I'll tell you the details on the way. Fair enough?"

"Fair enough," Venser agreed. He straightened up, taking the warmth of his nearness as he went. I moved to pull the blanket up underneath my chin.

Continuing to ignore Sorin behind him, Jace once again fixed his eyes on me. He smiled, a sight that lifted the burden of worry from my shoulders, even if for just a moment, and for that same moment I found it markedly more difficult to breathe. "How soon do you think you can be ready, Ranewen?"

"Just give me a few minutes," I said. I threw the blanket off of me and stood. Though the knowledge that he was watching me made me more than a little sick to my stomach, I did my best to avoid Sorin's gaze when it followed, like a yellow-eyed hawk. "I'll meet you back down here, alright?"

Jace nodded again, and I took the cue to dart up the stairs and into my bathroom, where I locked the door securely behind me. For a few minutes I just stood there, palms resting against the counter and head bent low over the sink. Slowly, I lifted it enough so that I could see beyond my hair, and looked in the mirror. My own eyes stared back at me, wide and green and carrying far too much weight than I should ever have known them to bear, and all of the worry that I had previously been trying to suppress came crashing down in an instant.

_So what am I now?_ I wondered, with a twinge of despair. _Am I_ _a monster_? I ran a finger down the length of my cheek. Unlike Sorin's skin, it still felt warm to the touch.

_Or am I lucky enough this time to just be the victim?_

* * *

><p>"Well, what do you think?"<p>

Jace, Venser, and I had returned from our shopping excursion and spent the rest of the day preparing our things, but now it was morning again, the day of everyone's departure. I was trying on my new outfit for all to see – dark, skin-tight leathers, with a red tunic visible beneath the vest on my upper half, and a thick black cloak thrown over my shoulders. I had the hood up to hide my ears, since Jace had said that the Cult of Rakdos never employed as many elves as the other guilds did. Our current mission was to seek out the suspected planeswalker Alanor Fireheart that Jace had mentioned before, and either to recruit him…or, if he resisted, to kill him. Jace was just as uncomfortable with the idea as I was – Venser, too – but as he had said, Alanor had been stirring up far too much trouble for the Consortium lately to just ignore him any longer. If we couldn't convince him to add his strength to our own, then there was no other choice but to eliminate him. We had to do it before he could actually manage to pull the cult together into a semblance of its former self, because if that happened, then a great deal of trouble was guaranteed to follow, Jace had assured us several times over. Right now our current plan of action was to dress up as members of the cult, sneak in – either the old-fashioned way, or with the aid of Venser's teleport – and then to determine Alanor's whereabouts, so that we could devise a way to meet with him in private. We hadn't quite figured out what we would do then if we managed to get that far, but, well…first things first. Right now, I was most concerned about making sure that my outfit was suitable.

"Think I could pass for a thug yet?"

Jace and Venser, clad in studded heavy leathers and reclining in the two armchairs that sat beside my window, chuckled, and Chandra giggled from where she lay sprawled across my bed. "You're a little small for a thug," she pointed out, poking a finger in my direction. She grinned, and I pouted. With a dramatic flourish, I swept my cloak up and around me to cover my face.

"Oh, come on," I insisted. I tried my best to make my voice sound deep and menacing. "I at least look like I would _stab_ you if we met in a dark alley rather than _hug_ you, right?"

A small, amused smirk crossed Jace's lips, and he cocked an eyebrow. "You look like you would _more_ than hug me, if I had the coin."

Venser and Chandra snorted. I felt my cheeks heat up, and I was thankful that my face was still hidden from view when I turned to him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I snapped. Unfortunately, though, I wasn't able to hold back the note of laughter that crept into my voice, because I knew perfectly well what Jace meant, and he knew that I knew. Now, I just wanted to egg him on.

The mage shrugged, languidly, and fixed me with an expression of mock surprise. "Don't you know? Only women of the night wear makeup like that."

I knew he meant the Tajuru war paint that I had improvised out of some of Chandra's powders – a mix of green and brown designs that coated and fanned out from my eyelids, as well as a heavier powder that ringed my eyes in black. The pyromancer had had a great deal of fun watching me put it on, and had marveled at my skill in bending the tiniest of her brushes to my whim.

"Says you," she piped up then. "_I _think she looks pretty."

"Would you wear that around _Gideon_, Chandra?" For once, Jace's voice was free of derision as he addressed her, throwing a teasing smile in her direction.

Chandra blushed. She stiffened, and then rolled over onto her back. "I…maybe." She crossed her arms over her chest, and turned her head to the side to scowl at him. "Who are you to judge what a lady wears, Beleren? The only woman you've ever had is Liliana, and _she _looked like she painted her whole damn face on every-"

"That's enough," he interrupted, with a harsh edge to his voice that silenced her instantly. It didn't stop her from scowling, though, so indeed she continued. He waved a hand at her impatiently. "I was simply expressing my opinion, not trying to start an argument."

As always, the mention of Liliana piqued my curiosity, but I knew better than to ask. Crossing my own arms over my chest, I turned to Venser and tilted my head a little, and let the cloak fall to settle about my knees. "Well, what about you, Venser? What do you think? _You'll_ back me up on this one, right?"

The artificer chuckled, and he shook his head as he raised his shoulders in an apologetic shrug. "Sorry Rana, but I'm going to have to agree with Jace. It's intricate, and I'm sure it took a lot of time and effort to do, but…" He paused, and then chuckled again as he planted his forehead in his palm. He looked at once amused and embarrassed. "The last time I saw someone with that much on, she was propositioning me when I cut through a back alley in Epityr."

I let out an incredulous laugh. Jace did too, though his was significantly quieter. "And you said yes, right?" When she spoke, Chandra rolled back onto her stomach to leer at Venser, whose face instantly flushed a bright red.

"I…no, Chandra, thank you very much, I did _not_." His gaze flicked to me before dropping down awkwardly to his lap, and suddenly, I found myself smiling. I was sure he had detected her note of sarcasm, so I found his reaction in spite of that fact almost…cute. The man had never failed to cheer me up since I had met him, and considering the unfavorable circumstances that I had found myself in of late, his was a very welcome presence to just have around. He made me forget, even if only for a while, and that was something I needed to remember to thank him for. I promised myself that I would…_just as soon as I find the right words to do it without sounding like a damn idiot._

I hadn't had a chance to speak to him alone, though – at least, not yet. I was jovial enough at the moment, but I couldn't keep thoughts of Sorin from gnawing at the corners of my mind, even now. I knew that if I didn't talk to Venser soon, I might just go mad. Either that, or I would die a slow death from my own anxiety.

"I hate to interrupt, but Sorin is getting ready to leave, Chandra."

All four of us turned then to see Gideon leaning against the doorframe, clad in his full plating and, notably, with his sural coiled at his hip. Just like that, and with his hair tied back, he looked ready to jump right into the fray, zombie hordes be damned. He cocked his head at Chandra. She sighed and rolled over again, onto her back.

"Right now?" she whined. "Come _on_, he said we weren't leaving for another hour."

Gideon shrugged, the motion crisp and short. "Well, he changed his mind. Don't ask me why. He's just as tight-lipped around me as he is the rest of you."

Chandra sighed again, and after a long moment she finally rolled over one last time, off the bed and onto her feet. She straightened, brushing the wrinkles from her long tunic. "So…I guess I should say my goodbyes then, right?"

Gideon nodded.

Chandra turned to me first, and hurried over to wrap her arms around me in a hug. I returned the embrace warmly. "Promise me you'll be careful, Rana? Jace can sometimes get everyone in over their heads, and I'm worried about you."

Though Jace frowned behind us, he had enough courtesy not to say anything. I laughed, lightly, and pulled back enough to hold Chandra out at arm's length. "I'll be fine, I _promise_. If worse comes to worse, I have two big strong men to take care of me." Seeing my grin, she chuckled, and I took the opportunity to tilt my head toward Gideon and send him a wink. "_You_ make sure _she_ doesn't get in any trouble, okay?"

Gideon looked a little taken aback, but a moment later he had recovered, and he smiled at me with genuine warmth. He bowed at the waist, like he had done the day that I had met him. "You can count on me, m'lady."

Chandra blushed. I beamed at her, and after one last meaningful look, we broke the embrace. She headed over to the doorway to join Gideon, and once there, she turned and waved at Jace and Venser, both of whom had stood from their chairs.

"See you both later. I'm sure we'll all be back soon enough, right?"

Jace didn't speak or nod, but he did afford Chandra an affable smile. Venser, on the other hand, outright grinned, and he returned Chandra's wave. "It was nice meeting the both of you," he said cheerily.

"You too," they said, and upon realizing that they had spoken in unison, they turned to one another and beamed. The expression on both of their faces was so endearing that I had a brief moment of just wanting to burst.

Once Chandra and Gideon had turned and begun to head down to the common room, I too turned to Jace, and he to Venser. The artificer looked a little confused upon being the receiving end of the mage's attention, but a few seconds later he seemed to remember something, and reached behind the chair where he had been sitting to pull out a shortsword. It was newly purchased thanks to Jace's seemingly endless pool of Consortium funds, just like the rest of our gear, and after a moment of fumbling – he didn't look terribly used to weapons, though he did have a proper grip on the handle – he managed to slide it into the sheath at his belt. Jace, himself, did the same thing, pulling out a sword from behind his own chair. His blade was significantly longer, and also looked significantly more worn – but the way he held it with such care, though, made me wonder.

"Time to head out?"

Jace merely nodded in response to Venser, since he was still staring down at the steel in his hands. "Mm." He paused, as if in thought, and then finally he looked up, blinking several times to bring himself back into focus. "You remember that place I told you about, that side tunnel near their headquarters where we can teleport in to start?"

Now Venser nodded. "I do. Want me to take us there now?"

Jace nodded again, and let out his breath in a sigh. "Yeah." He turned to me. As his blue eyes found mine, he tilted his head to the side just a little. "So long as you're ready to go, Ranewen?"

I patted my hunting knife at my own belt, forcing myself to smile despite the little knots of anxiety forming in my stomach. _I can't show my fear. Not anymore. _"No need to worry about me. I'm all set!"

"Good." Jace took a step closer to Venser, and the artificer immediately recognized what he was doing and reached out a hand to both of us. I stared at the offered limb in confusion, but after a moment I remembered that Venser had to be touching anyone he wanted to teleport along with him, and I nearly laughed aloud at my own stupidity. I guessed it was the stress, that was making me forget things.

"Rana?"

"Oh!" I still hadn't taken Venser's hand, and so I quickly reached out to do so, noting once I did how warm his palm felt over mine. He squeezed tightly. I could feel the mana crackling between us as he prepared his spell, and the strange, tingling sensation of it nearly stole my breath away.

"What do we do if we end up teleporting right in the middle of a patrol or something?" Venser yelled, for as his spell neared its completion, it became harder and harder to hear the world around us. I assumed it had something to do with the fact that we were losing our connection to the "here" as we strengthened ours to the "there," but that was just an idle musing.

"We have some fun," Jace yelled back, and the wry, boyish grin on his face was the last thing I saw before my bedroom vanished in a sheen of rippling golden light.


	18. Chapter 18

When I sucked in my next breath of air, it was so dank and stale that I gagged.

It was pitch-black around us, so I held onto Venser's hand and stumbled toward him until I bumped into his side, at which point he reached out an arm to catch me around the shoulder. His other hand released mine, and lifted it to summon one of his little blue wisps into his palm. Finally, I could see.

The whole setting – Venser teleporting me and one other companion into a dark, unpleasant-smelling tunnel – was rather reminiscent of my experience at Ish Sah, but I chose not to ponder on those memories. Instead I took in our surroundings – heavy, hard stone walls on two sides, worn smooth in places and stretching high above our heads to curve into an unnaturally flat ceiling. _These tunnels must be man-made, then_, I thought. I tilted my head all around, and there, in the distance, I spotted a tiny flickering flame – But then I blinked, for it was not stationary. It was moving, drawing slowly closer from what looked like a half-mile away.

"Venser!" I hissed. I cupped my hands over his wisp in an attempt to smother it. The thing felt cool to the touch, like a more solid version of morning mist. "Put it out, someone's coming!"

The artificer turned to look where I was looking, as did Jace beside him, and when he saw the flame he swore quietly under his breath. He did indeed quench the wisp through whatever means, and then pulled me back with the arm still around my shoulder until we were pressed flat against the wall behind us. Jace followed.

"Just hold on. I can wrap us in a full set of illusions, but it'll take a second." The mage's eyes flashed briefly blue in the darkness, and I had to refrain from gasping at the odd sensation that washed over me an instant later – like being dunked in ice cold water. I couldn't see what Jace had done to me, but I just felt…different. From the way Venser tensed next to me, I could tell that the same thing was happening to him too.

"Hold your breath," Jace whispered, "and don't make a sound. That's the only thing my illusions aren't too good at hiding."

We did. The flame had drawn close enough by now that I could see what it was – a floating spell, hovering neatly above the outstretched hand of a figure in dark, spiked leathers and gleaming silver buckles. The hood of a ragged black cloak was drawn up over its head, which, along with the flickering glow of the fire, gave his face – for now, nearly just a few yards away, I could see that it was indeed a he – an eerie, sallow look. I shivered.

When the man was close enough that I could reach out and touch him, he stopped. My heart began to hammer in my chest.

_Oh, please, no. We've barely even started this mission. This can't be happening already._

But my momentary panic was in vain, for the man had merely paused to adjust the wicked-looking serrated blade at his belt. He stood a little taller when he was finished, coughed once, and with an agonizingly slow gait, he moved on. I felt the barest brush of his cloak against my ankle as he left.

Finally, when he was a good while away, the three of us relaxed and let out our breaths as quietly as we could. There was another strange sensation as – I assumed – Jace loosened his grip on his illusions, and I slumped against the wall for a moment before collecting myself.

"Thank the spirits," I whispered. I found myself laughing lightly, nervously, before I could stop myself. "I know you sounded like you were itching for a fight, Jace, but…I feel like alerting these guys to our presence so early isn't a good idea." I took a step forward from the wall, rolling my shoulders that had become sore from so much tensing.

Jace chuckled. Venser brought to life another wisp, and when the area around us lit up, I could see the half-grin on the mage's face.

"Well," he said, "if we don't want to stand here hiding all day, then we should probably get moving, right?"

Venser and I both nodded. The artificer tilted his head in the direction that the patroller had gone, and swung his arm out to hold the wisp like the man had, as a torch. "This way, then?"

Now Jace nodded. "Yeah. Let's just make sure to keep an eye out."

And so we began to make our way forward, following the seemingly-endless tunnel at a snail's pace. We continued on for what felt like the better part of an hour, encountering no one else during that time – perhaps we were right in the middle of two patrols, Jace mused at one point – and I was beginning to wonder why we hadn't simply teleported in right where we needed to be when suddenly I heard a faint noise coming from ahead. Venser must have heard it too, because he stopped dead in his tracks, and then Jace put a hand out in front of me to halt my own progress.

"Listen," he breathed. "It sounds like…"

There was a long pause, and then I heard Venser inhale sharply at my right.

"…chanting," he finished.

His voice was hesitant, and when I pricked up my ears and listened too, I realized why.

Indeed, the echo against the tunnel's stone walls was one of rhythmic voices, their words indistinguishable but their collective tone unmistakably ominous – and the shuddering, sporadic roars of a crowd only heightened the unsettling effect. Here and there the sound was mixed with screams – bloodcurdling ones, no less – the first of which sent us all flinching back in surprise.

"Well, _this _sure sounds like it's gonna be fun," I muttered. Shivers were crawling their way up and down my spine now, and I rubbed my arms to quell the gooseflesh that was prickling beneath my leathers.

Jace turned to me. In the dim light I could see his brows pulled tightly over his eyes, and for a moment I thought he might be angry – But a moment after that, I could have kicked myself when I recognized the look on his face to be one of concern.

"This isn't right," he said quietly. He was clenching the hilt of his sword at his belt, so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. _Not a good sign._ "My informants told me that Alanor hadn't revived it to this point yet-"

"Revived _what_ to _what _point?" When Venser interrupted, I was taken aback by the harshness in his voice. I turned to him, and when I did I saw that he wore an expression of uncertainty, with a mixture of suspicion and alarm slowly creeping its way across his features. _Also not a good sign. _My stomach began to churn. "What's going on down that tunnel that you're not telling us, Jace?"

The mage shook his head, and he made a motion as if to pull up the hood of his cloak – but found no hood to grab, and so he let his hands drop awkwardly to his sides. "I…" He faltered, suddenly seeming to realize that both Venser and I were staring at him intently. After a long moment he sighed, and reached his fingers up to comb through his hair. "Look, it's…nothing important. Probably. Let's just get over there and see what's going on before I start into any explanations, alright?"

"_Probably_?" I groaned.

"You're hiding something, aren't you," Venser said. It was not a question.

Jace waved a hand irritably at the artificer and turned on his heel, ignoring me entirely as he began to walk briskly down the remainder of the tunnel. Despite the speed at which he moved, his boots were as silent as the pads of a cat's paws. "Just come on," he snapped. "We don't have time to stand here and argue with each other – We'll get caught by one of the damn patrollers. I'll explain when we get there."

Venser and I shared an uneasy look.

"Get _where_?" I whispered.

The artificer shrugged, and gave me a forced sort of smile. "Well…guess we have no choice but to find out, huh?"

"Uh…yeah." I could see that Jace had already gained a good deal of distance on us, so I hurried to try and catch up – though my footsteps were considerably less stealthy than his, so I had to slow down in order to stay quiet enough. Venser followed close at my heels, and soon he had come to my side to match pace with me, his steps syncing with mine.

We walked in silence for several minutes – or at least, as much silence as could be afforded when the lovely ambience of chanting and screaming was growing louder by the second – and then at last he spoke up.

"See anything?" he whispered. I could tell from the way he threw his voice that he was addressing Jace as well as me.

"I…" There was a pause, and then suddenly Jace came to a halt in front of us. His back stiffened, and he thrust his arm out to one side. "Wait…yeah, I think I do. Put your wisp out for a second, Venser."

He did. The both of us took this chance to stumble our way forward in the dark until we were at Jace's side – which we confirmed when I bumped straight into the mage's back, and Venser into his arm – and then we stopped, squinting ahead. At first I wondered whether Jace was going mad, because I couldn't see anything beyond the thick, smothering blackness, but then…

"There's a light!" I gasped. My hand immediately flew up to cover my mouth, for the sound had come out far louder than I intended it to.

"Yeah, I see it too." Venser's voice was coming from my left instead of my right now, and he sounded significantly less…suspicious than he had just a few minutes ago. Perhaps his curiosity was starting to get the better of him.

"Looks like our destination's just ahead," Jace whispered. He sounded out of breath, and there was an odd, yet distinct note in his voice that I couldn't quite place – Anticipation, perhaps? "Venser, keep your teleport at the ready. We might need to get out of here at a moment's notice, especially if-"

Suddenly there was a shrill scream from ahead, and then hundreds of voices raised as one in an exultant, wordless cry. Now that I was startled out of my wits and I could no longer block those noises from my mind, I realized that I could hear the steady rhythm of drumbeats behind it all, in time with the chanting.

"…I-If?" I whispered faintly.

"If _that _turns out to be what I'm hoping it isn't." My eyes had adjusted to the dark, but not well enough for me to see the expression on Jace's face – though really, I didn't need to, what with the way his voice spoke volumes.

"You still haven't told us what that might be," Venser reminded him. "We're not telepaths like you, you know. You're going to have to say it out loud."

I could almost sense the irritation making its way back onto Jace's features, but he did well enough to keep it out of his voice. I had moved close to his side after bumping into him, though, and pressed together as we were, I could feel the muscles in his arm clench. "You've got to trust me. If things start getting dangerous, we'll pull out, I promise. But right now, I don't want to jump to any conclusions before I've seen what in the hells is going on."

There was a creaking of leather as Venser shrugged. "Well, you're the boss here. Lead the way."

Suddenly, I felt a hard warmth fumbling down my wrist, and then when it finally found my palm and grasped it tight, I realized that it was Jace's gloved hand. My breath caught in my throat. When his fingers slid in between mine for a better grip – that…_was_ why he did it, right? – however much I tried to stop it, I felt the heat of blood rush into my cheeks.

_Well, thank the spirits it's at least dark in here._

"We're going to have to make our way down there without that wisp," Jace murmured. His palm squeezed against mine, and it was all I could do not to let out a squeak. "It'll attract too much attention once we get near. Venser, can you find one of our hands? I don't want us to get separated, especially if we need to teleport out in a hurry."

"Yeah." There was a moment of shuffling and creaking leather, and then I felt Venser's hand ghosting up along my arm, unsure.

"What did I find?" he asked.

"That would be my leg," Jace deadpanned in return, before I could reply, "and you'd better plan on finishing what you start if you're going to get me all excited."

Venser snorted. I let out a disbelieving giggle. "Very funny." Finally the artificer's hand reached my own, and his also-gloved palm settled over mine in a comfortable fit. "If that really was your leg, then hells Jace, you need to get out of your office more. It's thin as a rail."

"And if that's _your_ attempt at sweet-talking me, then you really need some help."

"Guys," I interrupted, doing everything I could to contain my building laughter, "are you going to just stand around flirting with each other, or are we actually going to go find out what that noise is?"

Jace sighed dramatically. "I suppose, if we must."

"Thanks for being the rational one for us, Rana," Venser added.

I couldn't help but grin, and I shook my head, even as Jace resumed walking forward again. "Out of all the times, you two pick _now _to start making jokes?"

Venser chuckled, and Jace shrugged – This time I could actually see it, though only slightly. It was odd to be walking with the three of us connected, so most of my attention was focused on putting one foot in front of the other without tripping, or stepping on the back of Jace's boot. "Better than letting the nervous tension build to a boiling point, don't you think?"

My grin broadened, and I felt a rush of appreciation for the mage. Unconsciously, my hand squeezed his a little tighter. "That's…true."

But however much I appreciated it, the lighthearted mood didn't last much longer. As we continued down the tunnel and the chanting, screaming, and now-frenzied drumbeats grew louder, I felt more and more drained with each step I took. Where before there had been a warmth of brief cheer in my chest, now there was just a hole – and it was filling up with dread, so quickly that there was nothing I could do to stop it.

The light was growing brighter too, and we soon realized that it was coming from a side passage just a quarter of a mile ahead.

The closer we drew, the more fond I became of the dark.

Finally, maybe ten minutes later, we reached the fork in the path – a sharp hook to the left, with flickering firelight streaming against the wall dead ahead of it. We stopped a good several yards back from the glow, so as not to be seen by whomever was within – especially since the noise had turned into an outright cacophony by this point, and we were loath to get ourselves swept up in whatever was happening.

Or at least, _I_ was. Venser and Jace were brimming with such curious anxiety that I thought they both might burst.

"You go first," I muttered, swinging Jace's arm so that his own elbow nudged him in the side. He turned to give me a look, and I realized that he wasn't able to hear me over the din. Remembering his brand of magic, I attempted to direct my thoughts his way. _**You're the master of illusions, right? So go ahead.**_

He rolled his eyes, but I could see the hint of a strained smile tugging at the corners of his lips. _**Oh, and whatever happened to 'ladies first?'**_

_**To hells with that! **_I threw my hands up, finally releasing both his and Venser's in the process. _**Do you think I'm any good at sneaking?**_

Jace's smile grew a little wider. _**Mmmm…guess not. Alright. Fine. I'll go. But brace yourself.**_

_**For what? **_I thought, but then that rushing, ice-cold sensation washed over me again, and I saw a faint blue aura hover around Jace, Venser and I for a moment before our bodies all just…disappeared. The sight – or lack thereof, rather – was so startling that I stumbled back a step, and would have tumbled over had there not been someone's chest to break my fall.

"That's you, Rana, isn't it?" came Venser's voice, audible only because of its very close proximity to my ear.

I nodded before I realized that he couldn't see it. "None other." I wasn't sure if he could hear me either, but it really didn't matter, because at that point I realized that Jace was heading toward the fork, and the light. Now that I strained my eyes, I realized that I actually _could_ see him – and myself and Venser too, but just our vague outlines. _**Jace, should we go with you?**_

_**No. **_I thought I saw him shake his head, his long hair bouncing against the sides of his face. _**I'll only be a second. I just want to see what's going on in there. **_

Somehow Jace must have been projecting his thoughts to Venser too, because suddenly I heard the artificer's voice in my mind alongside the mage's, clear as day. _**My teleport's still ready, if we need to make a break for it.**_

_**Good. **_Without further pretense, Jace took that final step, around the corner and directly into the angry glow of the firelight.

Then he froze.

A knot of horror and nausea and dread curved in my stomach, threatening to cave it in on itself. I let out a quiet cry.

Venser flinched behind me in exact unison with that awful sensation, so I realized that whatever was happening to me, was happening to him, too.

"What's…going on?" he gasped. His hands suddenly gripped my arms where they rested against him, a gesture that was at once protective and mortally afraid. I let him, sinking into his grasp.

"I don't know," I panted. "Something bad's going on." _**Jace. JACE!**_

Then the mage was there, fully visible, and Venser and I were both visible too, and Jace began to slide down the wall behind him as he struggled to catch his breath. He wasn't the most sun-kissed of men in the first place, but his face was as pale as a sheet now – completely devoid of color.

"Exactly what I was afraid of," he choked, and I saw his body shudder. "_Look_."

And then there was an image floating in the air in front of us all – a gruesome spectacle of hundreds of writhing bodies, humans and goblins and ogres and who knew what else, twisting and contorting over themselves and one another as leather and steel flashed, and skin melded, and great drums beat in the background. Unearthly noises erupted from their throats as they sank their blades into one another's flesh, sometimes dropping the unlucky sods to the ground in a quick death, other times retracting the weapons to leave gaping, dripping wounds that only seemed to drive the victim into a further frenzy. Nearly everyone's faces were covered in blood. A hazy red glow seemed to emanate up from the stone floor of the massive chamber, and it bathed that horrifying scene in a light that made it all seem like a hell itself had risen, and was now merely a few yards away from the three of us.

"_What_," I croaked, aghast, as I felt my legs trembling beneath me, "is _that_?"

Jace waved a hand in front of him weakly, and the hovering image disappeared. _**A blood ritual. I've only heard of something like this happening once in history, when Izolda was appointed to guildmaster-in-chief…**_

_**But what does this mean? **_Venser's hands were shaking where they held me, and I could hear the mix of desperation and horror in his thoughts. _**If they've only done it once, why are they doing it now?**_

Jace lifted his head to fix his gaze on each of us in turn. His eyes were wide, more so than I had ever seen them, and dark as a storm at sea.

_**Because**_, he thought, _**they're celebrating Alanor's rise to power. He's their leader now. He finally brought them back together.**_

_**He REVIVED the damn cult.**_

Venser and I stood, motionless, and just stared down at Jace. I could tell that he was at as much of a loss as we were from the way he, in turn, stared straight ahead at the wall, unblinking.

_**I don't know how we're going to do this.**_

_**Do what? **_I gently pulled away from Venser, and knelt down beside Jace so that I could meet him at eye level. _**What are we supposed to be doing on this mission, anyway? Convincing Alanor, right?**_

_**Yes**_, Jace responded, lifting his gaze to meet mine as he did so. _**We were supposed to find out what he's up to, and then get him alone so that we could persuade him to help us. We've got the first part down well enough, but…**_He shook his head. _**How in the nine hells are we supposed to get his attention in the middle of all THIS?**_

_**We could make a scene**_, Venser offered, and Jace and I turned to look up at him in unison.

_**What do you mean? **_I asked. _**Is there something we could-**_

_Oh._

Suddenly, I knew.

_**Guys**_, I thought, and I could hear my excitement resonating even in my own head. _**I think I've got it.**_

_**What? **_Jace's eyes were fixed on me now.

I looked from Jace to Venser, then back to Jace again. Their expressions were both a mixture of puzzlement and curiosity. _**How big an illusion can you summon, Jace?**_

The mage laughed aloud. I could see his chest, rising and falling lightly as a wan smile twisted his lips for a moment. _**Pretty damn big. Why, what are you thinking?**_

_**I'm thinking**_, I continued, clasping my hands together in front of my face, _**that we can distract them with some kind of illusion. Something that'll catch them off guard. We can take advantage of the chaos and slip in, and then find Alanor ourselves, if it doesn't already bring him out from wherever he's hiding.**_

Jace's eyes lit up, and abruptly he reached out to seize me by the shoulders. _**Rakdos.**_

_**Huh?**_

Venser and I thought the word in unison, and so Jace passed his gaze over each of us in turn. _**Rakdos. He's the demon god the guild used to worship when it WAS still a guild, even though he's apparently been dead for awhile. A guest appearance from him would be big enough to cause a stir, don't you think?**_

Venser and I exchanged glances, and then I turned back to look at Jace. I could tell that my own eyes were starting to light up – _For once, I actually contributed something!_

_**Do you know what he looks like? **_I asked.

Jace nodded. _**I've seen plenty of drawings in history books. I think I can manage well enough.**_

_**Then do it**_, Venser urged. He took a step forward, closer to us, and I could see that his fingertips were starting to crackle with little sparks of gold light. _**Rana and I will back you up in case something goes wrong. We can all run in together.**_

Jace nodded again, and let out his breath in a deep sigh. _**Right. **_He stood, using the wall as a crutch, and I rose with him, and watched anxiously as the resolve built in his face. _**No sense in wasting time. **_

His body flashed blue as he made a sudden lunge for the entryway, and then disappeared.

There was a long pause.

Then, all at once, pandemonium ensued.

There was a bone-chilling, primal roar that shook the ground beneath our feet, and the entire chamber beyond erupted with a chorus of gasps and wails and shrieks of what sounded not like fear, but...

…ecstasy?

_Screw it_, I decided, and I rushed over to the entryway myself, poking my head around the curved corner of the stone wall.

The chamber was exactly as Jace's projected illusion had shown it, only this time, there was no great tangle of bodies and blood – instead there was a towering, thousand-foot-tall, utterly _terrifying _demon, with horns curling about his massive head, and two incomprehensibly large wings unfolding from his back to encompass the entire cavern. Chains dripped from a plate on his chest like some sort of crudely fashioned armor, but they only contributed to his frightful appearance – that, and the fact that what had once been a crazed mass of revelers was now transformed into a devout congregation, throwing themselves face-first to the floor in a competition of 'who-can-bow-the-deepest.' Most of them were sobbing, screaming – but the sounds were passionate cries, sounds of lovers. I felt sick hearing it.

_What is going __**on **__here?_

_**Ranewen. Venser**_. Jace's voice came into my head crisp and clear, though I couldn't yet spot his blue outline anywhere in the room. _**This isn't exactly the reaction I was expecting, so we're going to have to just go-**_

But his statement was cut short, because suddenly a huge fireball rocketed itself straight through Jace's illusion of Rakdos, shattering it – and then it continued onward, down toward the ground…straight toward _me_.

I couldn't bring up any sort of barrier fast enough. All I could do was scream, and throw myself to the ground in some pathetic attempt to dodge the inevitable.

But instead of feeling a thousand tongues of white-hot flame engulfing me seconds later, I felt myself being lifted, pulled up off the ground by the collar of my leathers.

I was able to register the face of another man, inches away from mine, before my whole being imploded in a sensation of unimaginable terror.

I couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, couldn't _anything. _All I could do was stare ahead, mouth open and gaping like a dead fish, as fear literally paralyzed my entire body, and then everything seemed to melt away. My brain registered that I was quaking violently, that tears were beginning to run down my face and that I was making little strangled noises like a dying animal, but there was nothing I could do beyond initial recognition – I was nothing, _nothing_ among the ocean of dread and horror and everything that could go wrong in the world as it surged over me, drowned me-

But as abruptly as it had all begun, it just…_ended_. I was left gasping, reeling, struggling to make my eyes see and my lips work as the world came back into focus.

"Nnnngh…" I moaned. My tongue couldn't form words yet, but I was slowly realizing that there was some sort of serrated blade being pressed to my throat, and that my throat _hurt_, and that the face that had been in front of me before was still there, wild-eyed and livid. I struggled to take in the details. Rough. Middle-aged. Pockmarked, and full of enough scars to have borne the brunt of several lifetimes' worth of battles. Coarse, matted yellow-blond hair dangled over his face and down into his eyes. Altogether, he looked to be a rather unpleasant individual.

Then, suddenly, everything hit me. Blade. Angry man. Alanor. Jace. _Jace. Venser_. Where were they?

As if in answer to my unspoken question, a familiar voice let out a vicious snarl from beside me. "Let her _go_, dammit!"

My gaze shifted, and I sucked in a harsh breath when I saw Jace standing just a few feet away, the blade of a scythe held to his throat as a group of the revelers disengaged themselves from their stupor and surrounded him. Clear-headed – or as much so as they could get – now that their deity had been exposed as a hoax, they fixed him and I both with unflinching gazes, and drew their own weapons to fence him in.

Just then I realized that the one holding the long-handled scythe was the same man standing in front of me, and I felt a nauseating wave of dread.

_**Jace**_, I thought desperately. _**Jace, can you hear me?**_

_**I…nn…agh! **_Jace winced aloud, and his thoughts collapsed into racking sounds of pain that I could see he was trying to bite back, from the way his jaw clenched and his head drooped onto his chest. After a moment his shoulders slumped and he looked up – though when he met my gaze, panting, I could see a note of wild fear in his eyes. The sight startled me.

_**Ranewen**_, he nearly gasped, and I could sense the effort it was taking for him to even think straight. _**Alanor, he's…he using some kind of fear aura. I can't…I'm trying not to let it happen to me, too, what just happened to you-**_

_**No**_, I thought urgently, _**no, Jace, you can do this. You're alright. Please, you've got to be-**_

"Well? Are you recovered enough to talk, or are you just going to stand there staring at him like a lovestruck fool?"

I looked up at Alanor, defiance in my gaze. I knew that there was a fine line now, knew it especially so as I watched dozens more revelers clamber to their feet and form a wide circle around us, and I knew that if I crossed it, I would die. Or worse – Jace would die. Or Venser. My eyes darted around the chamber frantically, searching for the artificer while I still had enough time to stall-

"_Speak_!" The jagged edges of the blade dug into my skin, eliciting an unbidden yelp.

"I…" My tongue felt thick, and my lips heavy. I wondered if I would even be _able_ to speak. "I…I don't know what you want from me."

The man chuckled, an unusually high-pitched sound, and drew back enough so that he could comfortably adjust his grip on his scythe. I could see now that he wore an outfit similar to the patroller that had passed us far earlier, except the spikes that studded _his_ leathers looked so sharp that they could easily pierce flesh. "I want information, wench. And you will give it to me. _Now_." His other hand tightened on the hilt of his sword, and I winced as the blade shifted against me. "Who are the two of you, and why have you so _rudely_ interrupted my lovely celebration?"

_Two? _My heart leapt in my chest, and I shared a brief look with Jace that told me everything I needed to know. I couldn't ponder on it any longer though, lest I put a toe over that fine line.

"We're…" I struggled to swallow. _Here goes nothing._ "We're…planeswalkers. We just came to talk to you, Alanor, not to-"

"_Silence_!" I cried out a little as the blade dug deeper into my flesh, drawing blood this time. His voice came out in a threatening hiss. "You think that speaking of power will sway me, and save you from your punishment? Tch. Not likely." His fingers drummed against the hilt of the sword for a moment, and then he leaned in close, a sickly smile spreading across his lips. He nudged my chin up with the back of his gauntlet. "No…not unless you have something to offer."

Jace growled then, and the sound shot straight to my gut.

_**Stop it**_, I pleaded, forcing my gaze to stay on Alanor and his steel-grey eyes. _**You're just going to piss him off!**_

_**I don't care**_, he snapped back. _**I can read his thoughts. And I don't like them. **_

_**What's he thinking?**_

_**Trust me, you don't want to know.**_

A shudder of dread and revulsion coursed through me, and now I had to struggle to speak past the lump forming in my throat. "We could offer you money, or protection, or…pretty much any other kind of resource you could want, really. We just want your help for something, that's all-"

"Help?" Alanor seemed to have a fondness for interrupting, and he also had a fondness for doing so by pressing the flat of his blade against my throat with such force that it cut off my air. I made a cross between a squeak and a cough when he did it this time. "And what could little worms like you _possibly _think I might deign to help you with?"

I choked. "There's…a force." I tried not to wince at the tightness in my chest from lack of air, but it wasn't easy. "A group of monsters called the Eldrazi. They're destroying the plane of Zendikar, killing everything – and they can travel through the Blind Eternities, so once they're finished there, they'll be able to come here. If they do, then they'll-aaahhh!"

This time, he pushed harder with the blade than before, and let the jagged edges dig into the soft skin below my jaw. It hurt. It _hurt_, _spirits damn it_…

"And why," he rumbled, "do you think I care?"

I could only stare at the man, dumbstruck. Even the pain eased up a little in the face of my shock, and then he was pulling back on the pressure to let me speak again, and it was another moment before I could find the words. "I…" I shook my head, flashing Jace a glance out of the corner of my eye. When I did, I saw that he looked equally taken aback. "You've got to understand – If they make their way to Ravnica, they will kill_ everything_-"

"Well then they and I," Alanor interrupted again, voice quiet, "have an interest in common." He licked his lips. "I will welcome them." There was a pause, and then, suddenly, I noticed how his eyes gleamed dangerously as they stared into mine – and one moment later, I realized how utterly _mad_ they looked. How mad _he _looked. "Let the killing come."

_**There's no reasoning with him, Ranewen**_, Jace's voice said in my mind, and I could hear a note of panic rising in his thoughts. _**He's completely gone. I'm only reading his surface thoughts right now, and gods, he really believes what he's saying…!**_

_**No**_, I nearly wailed back. _**Come on, you've got to be kidding! People like that aren't supposed to exist!**_

_**Well HE does**_, the mage responded gravely. _**His mind's a mess. I've never seen anything like this. It honestly looks like something chewed him up and spat him out…**_

"If that's all the reason you have for me to let you live," the mad planeswalker drawled, abruptly cutting Jace and I off from our collective thoughts, "then I must say, I'm rather disappointed." He clucked his tongue, and the sound, along with the way his grip tightened on his weapons, sent my heart seizing with panic. It resumed its beating, double-time, when the blade at my throat began to move – slowly – slicing a thin, stinging line into my skin.

At once I remembered the way Sorin's blade had cut me there too, and I let out a brief cry before I could stop myself.

"What a shame." Alanor's eyes narrowed. A wide, wicked grin curved to fill what seemed like his entire face. "Two young planeswalkers, delivered directly to my doorstep – and right in their prime, no less!" He chuckled, and his arm muscles clenched in preparation for the killing blows he was about to perform. I wondered desperately then whether I should just try to cast something, _anything_ in an attempt to save our lives – But the question was, would I be able to do it fast enough?

"Too bad I'm going to just have to kill them both."

Suddenly, there was a loud _pop _thatechoed against the walls of the chamber.

"Not if I have anything to say about it, you arrogant piece of shit."

My heart soared at the sound of the voice, and beside me I heard Jace let out a triumphant shout that echoed my own sentiments.

"Venser!" I yelled.

Alanor snarled and spun, but by some awful grace he managed to keep his weapons held perfectly in position. I didn't have enough room to crane my neck around him, but out of the corner of my eye I could see the crowd around us tensing, twisting to look in every direction for the source of the voice – and in that moment I realized how outnumbered we were, to the point of where there wasn't even any room for Venser to teleport close if he wanted to grab us.

_**Damn**__ it!_

But then, suddenly, there was another _pop_, and the sword against my throat simply vanished.

I barely had time to register my surprise before everything around me went to hells.

I heard Jace screaming my name first, and then he was swiftly drowned out by the roaring of the crowd as they began to surge toward Alanor – who himself was screaming too, calling out for Venser to show himself and spewing various epithets like rapidfire. I sidestepped, scooting along the wall and out of Alanor's reach to find the mage –but before I could make a move toward him, I lost him in the tide of rushing bodies.

_**Jace!**_ I cried. I ran straight into the flow, ducking around shoulders and beneath arms that were, unbelievably, paying me no heed. I didn't understand why they weren't trying to kill me – Perhaps they felt some insane need to protect their leader, above all else? It didn't matter. I wasn't going to ask questions. This turn of events was to my benefit, and I was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Especially not when my life was at stake.

"Fools! Idiots! Imbeciles! You're letting them get away! What are you doing? Get away from me, get-_stop them_!"

Fear seized my stomach in an iron grip. _Shit._

_Well, I knew it was too good to last._


	19. Chapter 19

"Rana," Venser shouted from somewhere, and I could hear the panic in his voice, "_RUN_!"

I wasted no time questioning him. I was already surrounded by the seething mob, pressing in on me from all sides as they began to process their leader's screech of a command. They weren't yet stabbing me or trying to punch my teeth in, though I knew it wasn't long until they would start – so I scrambled as fast as I could toward the edge of the crowd, desperate to break free.

_**We can't fight them**_, I heard Jace's voice say, and I scanned the crush of bodies in all directions for him as I ran. No luck. _**We're already outnumbered – and on top of that, they've got Alanor. We're going to have to teleport out and regroup.**_

_**I can see you both, but I can't get to you**_, Venser returned, and as I whipped my head around looking for him now, my eyes suddenly locked onto a figure balanced atop a large, crumbling statue at the far end of the chamber. It clutched two weapons in its fists, which I recognized to be Alanor's sword and scythe. My heart leapt. _**There's no room to teleport close! **_

Jace's voice resonated in my mind like a rasp, harsh and strained. _**Well then, we're going to have to MAKE room. **_

Suddenly there was the sharp ring of steel being drawn, and the bodies around me shifted.

My eyes sought the source of the sound as I drew ever closer to the edge of the crowd, and at last they found exactly what they were looking for.

There he stood, a good ten yards away from me but yet visible through a gap in the bodies as they simultaneously drew closer to him and retreated. He crouched low in a battle-ready posture, face drawn, and hefted his broadsword out in front of him – easily, effortlessly, as if its bulk didn't matter. In his grip, it could have weighed nothing.

For one moment his scanning eyes found mine, and our gazes locked. I froze.

_**Go**_, he whispered.

As one, the two of us leapt into action. I had run out of time in my fight to break free of the crowd, and nearly twenty figures – mostly goblins and humans, though there were several ogres thrown into the mix – were advancing on me now, daggers and swords and axes at the ready. Several of them clenched their fists, and fire sprang to life at their command to wreath their entire arms in heat and light.

I grit my teeth, and called forth all the mana I could muster. It surged into me and through me and then all around me, and I could feel the raw ecstasy of it as the hood of my cloak blew back and my hair began to whip about violently, in a wind of my own conjuration. I lifted my arms, and I saw tiny leafed vines creeping their way from my fingertips to my shoulders, even as all of me was wreathed in a shroud of black mist. It felt good. It felt powerful. Hells, it felt _glorious_.

"Last chance to back off," I hissed, in a voice that was my own and yet not my own. "Next time, I'm not going to ask so nicely."

My wild-eyed foes didn't acknowledge me in the least. They left me no choice.

"Have it your way, then." I thrust my hands in front of me, and a wave of force rocketed outward that set the aether shimmering. Those unlucky enough to be within its blast radius were thrown back into the bodies behind them, and I felt a wicked grin twist my lips at the sight of them toppling into one another, weapons flying. But only for a moment. Quickly, I closed my eyes, and I focused all of my effort on the task before me.

The aether hummed and shifted beneath my touch, and an instant later three massive figures burst forth from the stone floor with a deafening crash.

Bits and chunks of debris went flying from the sheer force of my trees' entrance, and fell down upon everyone around like rain. I said a silent prayer to the spirits that Jace wouldn't be caught up in the crossfire – but at the same time, I knew he could handle himself. Right now, I needed to focus on getting myself the hells out of this chaos, and finding Venser. I would do whatever I had to do.

Right now, that consisted of commanding my trees to slaughter everyone still coming my way.

The first two – similar in size and shape and with matching leaf-beards, though one wielded a broadsword while the other a great axe – charged straight ahead, slicing their weapons in wide arcs around them that took out dozens of cultists at once. The third tree – the root-beard, my most trusted ally that I had summoned both against Vincenius and Sheoldred – followed suit, reaching down with his impossibly thick arms to swipe even more of them away. With every step he took, he crushed still more beneath his boulder-like feet.

Suddenly, there was a great metallic screech, and a familiar voice let out a whoop that echoed across the chamber.

"Alright, let's see how you bastards like some modified Phyrexian artifice!"

When I took a brief moment to glance up, my jaw nearly dropped – For now, skittering its way through the sea of bodies toward where Jace and I fought, was none other than Venser's psychosis crawler. The artificer himself was seated atop some contraption that he had built onto its back, and he didn't even have to move a muscle to urge it forward. It followed his every unspoken command, and each time any of the cultists drew too near, they fell to the floor in a fit of seizing and screaming, instantly. Like clockwork. Incredulity flooded me for a moment as I wondered how the crawler could possibly be debilitating those people so easily – but then I remembered its malfunctioning back in Venser's workshop, and the brief assault that it had visited upon my ears. I imagined what that assault must be like when directed straight into a mind, and I winced.

"Venser!" I cried, though I knew that it would prove redundant. I had three towering sentinels to alert him to my position, but I felt compelled to say something nevertheless. "This way!"

The artificer laughed, and even from this distance I could see the boyish grin that split his face as he charged closer. "No need to worry, Rana, I see you both." Despite the din, his voice came out loud and sharp and clear. "Just hold tight!"

My tree's great wooden broadsword carved a path through the cultists with a single stroke, and I darted into the gap before it had time to close. Mana churned between my fingertips, so thick that I could almost feel it tangibly. My running steps came at a faster pace. "I'm holding as best I can!"

Before I could make my way closer to Venser and his crawler, though, a horrible keening roar stopped me dead in my tracks.

_**RANEWEN!**_

Jace's voice came screaming into my head in time with the buffeting rush of air above me that sent me falling, tumbling helpless to my knees. I grunted and rolled. With a thought, before I had even hit the ground, I pleaded for my trees to come to me, and they did – Swiftly, they formed a protective circle around me, fighting back the cultists that still struggled to reach me and to cleave my head from my shoulders.

When I had a moment to look up and see what in the nine hells had caused that wind, my heart thudded to a halt.

There, banking and curving as it glided toward the far end of the chamber, was a monstrously large, bat-winged, glistening-scaled _dragon_. Beyond it, atop the same statue where Venser had perched, now stood Alanor, fists raised to the air as deep red mana flared between them and then out to the body of the great beast. It bathed both summoner and summoned in an angry glow of light.

My breath escaped my lips in a hoarse squeak.

"Ranewen!" Jace cried, aloud this time, and my gaze flicked between the legs of my treefolk to find him just a short distance away, trading blows with two blade-wielding humans – the only ones who weren't either ensnared by his illusions, or caught up in battle against the two cerulean drakes he had summoned. I could see the layers of his leather cut in several places, and bright red blood dripped from his wounds. My gut twisted. "Ranewen," he yelled again, his eyes meeting mine for a brief second, "just get to Venser and get the hells out of here! There is no _way _we can fight off that…nngh…!" He flinched as the blade of his opponent's sword skimmed over an already-open arm wound, and I gasped, "…that damn dragon! Venser can come back for me, but you've got to get out of here first!"

"Are you _kidding_?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I shook my head vehemently, and felt a sickening curl of dread as, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the beast turn about-face. It snapped its jaws, and I could see muscles tensing beneath its scales as it prepared to soar straight back toward us. "Jace, are you an idiot? Look at you! There is no way you can hold your own against all these people, _and _Alanor, _and _that dragon!" I slammed my fist into the ground, and a burst of dark mana hissed up around it, curving into tendrils of smoke before my eyes. My temper flared. I relished in the abrupt sound of wood crunching bone as some foolish cultist tried to pass through my wall of tree protectors, and got cracked hard across the chest for his trouble. "We're leaving _together_, dammit, or we're not leaving at all!"

Jace chuckled. "Stupid." He ducked beneath one opponent's blade and spun, delivering a brutal blow across the chest of the other that sent him toppling backwards until his head hit the stone floor. Jace kept on spinning, swinging his blade in a wide, controlled arc, until it lodged tightly into the ribcage of the other man, who didn't even have time to react. The mage yanked his weapon free, and the man dropped to the ground beside his companion with a gurgle. With the back of his free hand, Jace wiped a trickle of blood from his lips. "But if I may say so, very you."

I wanted to ask him what that was supposed to mean, but I was distracted by the deafening roar of the dragon as it flattened its limbs to its body, and then pushed off from the wall with one powerful wingstroke.

"Look out!" Venser yelled.

It was too little too late, unfortunately.

I didn't even have the time to conjure a simple mana barrier before it felt as if my entire body were awash in fire – and indeed, it was.

I screamed as the dragon's breath licked across every inch of me, and before I could grasp onto enough white mana for a pain-dulling spell, my body began to spasm uncontrollably, in agony. It took every single shred of composure I still had to conjure a mass of vines to wrap around me and smother the flames, and even though I did it quickly enough to prevent any truly severe burns…_Oh, dear spirits_. I couldn't even comprehend how much it hurt. I could do nothing but lay there, sucking in racking, heaving breaths as tears rolled down my cheeks and stung against the peeling flesh, and I didn't even have the strength to lift my head and look around. It had all happened so fast. The only things that hovered before my blurred vision now were the charred remnants of my trees, having fallen to ash around me even as their deeper essence dissipated to rejoin the aether from whence it came.

The smell of charred flesh reached my nostrils. I squeezed my eyes shut in an attempt to prevent myself from being violently sick.

But then, before I even knew what was happening – much less respond – I felt something hard and sharp close around my torso.

I was lifted roughly up into the air, and panic tore at me in the instant I understood.

The dragon had seized me in its claws.

Adrenaline surged through my veins as the floor disappeared beneath me and I was borne higher and higher, until I could see Jace still struggling to hold back wave after wave of cultists, and Venser on his crawler still tearing through the crowd. They were both looking up at me intermittently, and I heard both of their voices cry out my name, but neither of those things really registered. What did, however, was the way Jace was now gripping his sword with two hands and panting as blood rolled down his leathers, and the harsh grinding sounds that Venser's crawler emitted as more and more cultists threw off its psychic assault and launched themselves at it. They hacked into its spiderlike legs with their weapons, and I saw the machine emit a large cloud of steam. It jerked, sending the artificer nearly tumbling out of his already-precarious seat.

"Damn it all to hells," I whispered.

All of these thoughts only took a few split seconds to flash through my mind, but when I came back to reality it was as harsh as being jolted out of a dream.

I heard a mad roar of triumph from across the chamber, and I caught a glimpse of Alanor's cloak billowing out about him as he stood wreathed in a maelstrom of black and red mana, before I realized what was about to happen.

Doing as I had done before, I conjured a thick armor of vines to wind and harden around my body – and not a moment too soon, because an instant later the dragon hurled me straight out and into the chamber's stone wall.

I felt limp, boneless, as my completely encased self slid down and onto the floor. When my body finally rolled to a halt, I shuddered, and let out a plaintive sob that I didn't have the will to hold back. I could hear the clattering and the clamor of battle around me. It was distant, muffled, but I could hear the bloodlust in the echoing cries, and then one of my companion's yells of alarm being cut off, and...it all scared me more than anything. More than my own predicament. I wanted this to all just _stop_.

I couldn't deny being afraid for myself, however, because I knew that if I let go of the hold I had on my spell, the dragon would tear me to pieces in an instant. I wouldn't have time to go on the offensive. Not even a moment.

With a silent prayer for help, I put everything I had into strengthening that spell.

When the dragon lifted me up again and exhaled its fire on me anew, I screamed at the top of my lungs, as the tightly woven vines trapped and intensified the heat until it felt as if my body were blistering, bubbling and boiling and turning to liquid.

"Noooooo," I wailed. I was a child again, a helpless, terrified girl pleading desperately for her mother. _It hurts. It hurts. Please no, it __**hurts**__. Make it __**stop**__. _I writhed uncontrollably, feeling my shell protest against the movements, which only made it hurt worse."Help me, oh spirits, please, aaahhhhhh-!"

The dragon tore at me, clawed at me, sank its teeth into the heavy layer of plant matter that separated me from an instant's gruesome death, and then finally spat me out hard onto the ground when it must have realized that its tactics weren't working.

I couldn't move an inch in my leafy prison. I could do nothing but shake, and breathe hard, and cry. I could feel my connection with the mana lines coursing into me begin to fade, and my heart pounded hard against my chest as I watched them go.

_Jace_, I thought, as I tasted the salt and blood of a tear that had made its way to my lips. The inside of my armor positively _reeked _with my blood, and I felt as if I were going to drown in the scent alone of the heady substance. _Venser. Please…_

…_get out of here._

I could keep a hold on my spell no longer. I didn't want to let go, I _desperately_ didn't want to, and every fiber of my being screamed out at me to hold on if I gave a damn whether I lived or died, but…I could do nothing else. I just didn't have the strength.

I released my grip.

The vines disappeared in a matter of seconds, and I lay on my back now, staring up into the dragon's blindingly yellow eyes as it lifted me up on a single talon, gingerly, with what I could almost call tenderness.

Then it snarled, and with abrupt and brutal force, it threw me once more against the chamber wall.

I heard my skull crack against the cold stone.

Blood began to rush down my face like a river.

_**RANEWEN! DAMMIT, NO! **_Jace's voice came into my mind then, screaming but yet sounding as far away as I knew my home of Zendikar to be. Or at least, what was left of it.

As I peeled away from the wall and fell, my vision stayed long enough for me to catch a glimpse of him – being forced to the ground beneath the press of two dozen bodies, his sword clattering to the stone as it was yanked from his hands. A swift gust of air blew everyone back for a moment, away from his form...but _only _fora moment. In that brief time I could see the mage laying on his back, still, save for the trembling rise and fall of his chest as he strained to breathe. He was covered in blood.

Beyond him, I saw Venser standing straight up in the chair of his crawler, fists clenched at his sides as his eyes locked on me and he, too, screamed my name. He didn't seem to care that his machine was crumpling beneath him, at last quelled by the might of an endless sea of cultists.

Then I saw nothing more. I could only hear and feel as my legs hit the ground, and snapped like twigs beneath me.

I heard the dragon then, too, rumbling and letting out a long, loud roar that echoed in tune with the same victorious howl of its master.

_I guess this is the last time I have to go through this, then. _My thoughts floated, as dissipate as fog beneath the dappled sunlight that poked through the canopy of the jaddi-trees. Or _had_, once. Maybe I would see my old home again, in a short while. Alive, and vibrant. Just the way I remembered it. _No more waking up safe and sound._

A shudder ran through my body, and then nothing seemed to hurt anymore. Even as I felt the dragon's weight part the air as it rushed down toward me, I welcomed the release.

_I'm really going to die._

"_NO_!"

A loud _pop_ rang in my ears, so jarring that I found myself opening my eyes, forcing them to see from whence the sound had come.

To my utmost surprise – and horror – I saw Venser crouched over me, arms spread out to his sides as a shimmering barrier formed a wide dome around us both.

_No_, I thought weakly, _save yourself. Get out of here._

But of course he couldn't hear me. He wasn't Jace the telepath. He was an artificer, and now Venser the artificer grunted as the dragon crashed headfirst into the barrier, and reared back on its hind legs. The beast screeched. Venser staggered.

I couldn't speak, but I desperately wanted to. A sob built in my broken chest to somehow make its way up and out past the blood that poured from my mouth. _You're not supposed to die with me, dammit_, I would have said. The artificer's face turned to me, pale, and he reached down to brush a gentle hand against my cheek. It shook. I wanted to fling him away, to yell at him and shake him by the shoulders, no matter how much that simple gesture did comfort me – anything that would get him away from here, and danger. Away from me. _You have to save yourself…save Jace…_

But as if he had read my mind he leaned in and spoke, his fingertips digging into my skin as the dragon threw itself against the barrier once more.

"I'm not," he whispered harshly, even as the ground beneath us shook, "leaving you." Bits of stone broke off from the ceiling above us, and made sharp skittering sounds as they fell and bounced off of the barrier. When Venser opened his mouth again, I could hear something in his voice tearing at the edges. "So don't you _dare _die on me, Rana."

The dragon screeched again as it prepared for another strike, and all I could muster was another desperate sob. I couldn't look away from Venser's brown eyes, from the mixture of emotions that I was so far from being able to grasp as I hovered here, now, impossibly aware, on the edge of life and death.

But just before the creature came crashing down on us both, there was a flash of brilliant white light.

_This is it_, I thought. _This must be what it's like to die._

Venser fell back onto his knees. Had I been able, I would have let out a cry. I felt the overwhelming sensation of white mana as it poured out from somewhere and into everywhere, and filled the entire chamber with its resonating strength.

There was a bone-chilling, wordless shout – a war cry. Steel rang like a bell, and I was reminded of the many steeples and belfries that I had come to know already, in my short time that I had spent here in Ravnica. I was vaguely aware of a smile, spreading unbidden across my lips. There were screams.

I drifted.

When I became aware again, I felt a warmth – a sensation akin to being cradled against someone's chest, in arms that were at once strong and gentle. Whoever held me did so with such a featherlight touch that I felt as if I were floating – or perhaps, it was that I simply couldn't feel anymore. I wouldn't be surprised. I didn't feel pain.

I could feel a different warmth too, now – that same radiance of white mana that had overwhelmed me before. Whether it had been seconds or hours ago, I didn't know. I didn't care to know. I was so _tired_.

"Who…_are_ you?" Venser's voice came from above me, incredulous, and that was the last thing I heard before I let go, and slipped away into the arms of blissful nothingness.

I wondered vaguely whether I would wake up in the end or not.


	20. Chapter 20

Contrary to my expectation, I did, in fact, wake up.

"Rana?"

I groaned. My eyelids were still closed, but I could see the shadows of movement beyond them, dark against a curtain of red. Little multicolored dots danced in whatever it was I could call my field of vision.

"Rana, can you hear me?"

"Mmmmn."

Whoever my conversation partner was, they chuckled. No – he. I was too disoriented still to recognize who _he_ was, though I felt like I should.

_Oh._

"V…Ven…ser?"

Now I recognized the quiet rumble of the artificer's voice. He was laughing, gently. "Well, now I know for _sure_ you're feeling better. You called me by my full name this time!"

_Huh?_ My eyes slid open a crack, and I saw his brown ones – clear and bright – gazing down at me from the edge of my bed. _My __**bed**__? I'm back in the compound?_ He brushed a bit of hair out of his face as he leaned over, and he smiled. Despite the welcome sight though, I groaned again.

"Whazza supposta mean?" I slurred. Clearly, my tongue wasn't quite prepared for function after what felt like so long a rest. I didn't know how long I had _really_ been out, but it felt like an absolute eternity.

Venser leaned in a little closer, and as sensation slowly began to return I realized that one of his hands was reaching up to press something cool and wet against my forehead. The touch of it tingled, and even in my groggy stupor I recognized the sensation to be mana.

"When you were out," the artificer said, matter-of-factly, as he procured a small bottle from somewhere at his waist, "you would respond to me, sometimes." His smile turned into a crooked grin as he took out the stopper and poured a few drops onto his index finger, which he pressed for a brief moment between my eyebrows. When he pulled it back, a strange warmth spread from the spot. I blinked. "You always called me Ven, though. You only really gave one-syllable responses, so honestly, that was the best I could ask for." He recorked the bottle and slipped it back into what I now saw to be a satchel at his belt, overflowing with herbs and vials and spirits knew what else. When he turned back to me, he was positively beaming. "But it sounds like you're doing much better now!"

I laughed. The sound came out like a hoarse, breathy rasp – but still, it was better than nothing. "I…like that." I coughed once then, despite my marked improvement in speech, and the motion sent a knife of pain through my chest. Venser scrunched up his brow in concern, but I shook my head to indicate that I was fine. He seemed to relax. "I-It's…ngh…it's cute. You don't…have a nickname, and you gave _me_ one, so…why not?"

Venser's cheeks reddened. I wanted to giggle, seeing as how I must have injured his masculine pride by referring to him with such a feminine word, but I wasn't sure if my muscles would be able to manage that. I settled for a grin instead.

"I guess it's only fair," the artificer said. He bowed his head a little, and reached up to comb his fingers through his hair as, at last, he grinned in return. "I'll just have to get used to it, then, huh?"

I nodded. "Mm." There was a pause as my gaze skimmed past him and out to the rest of the room, which, to my surprise, now held a long table in one corner that was covered from end to end in…well, in what I could best describe as a small laboratory. Bottles lined the whole back of the table, in all shapes and sizes, and filled with many different colors of liquids. Small boxes of herbs and other dry ingredients were stacked on both of the table's sides, and in the center there stood several metal contraptions the likes of which I had never seen before, with the only one I recognized being a mortar and pestle set made of smooth black stone. Papers were strewn all about the workspace, and a quill pen stood upright in an inkwell off to one side. I felt my head tilt in a gesture of confusion, and I turned to look at Venser.

"What is all that?" I asked. My voice had almost returned to normal by now, though my tongue still felt a little thick. I managed a chuckle. "You didn't find it stashed away in some secret compartment of my closet, did you?"

Venser sighed. "Ah…no, unfortunately. That would have been way more convenient. Some of it's mine, and the rest is borrowed from Vincenius. I told you he was teaching me alchemy, didn't I?"

"I think so." I took in the array once more with a growing curiosity. "Why did you bring it all here? Need to practice since you've been away for awhile?"

The artificer laughed lightly. He shifted a little, and the bed squeaked underneath his weight. "No, though I'm sure Doc would appreciate the sentiment." Now he was the one to tilt his head as he regarded me, and he smiled. "Rana, you know I don't know any healing magic, right? All that is what I've been using to take care of you."

My face flushed a bright red before I could stop it. _Take care of me? But that means…_ "Ven, you've…" I paused for a moment. Even though I had just dubbed him with that nickname, it felt perfectly natural on my tongue, and for whatever reason that flustered me. I shook my head. "Why have you been doing that? How long have I even been out?"

He shrugged. "A week and a half, about. And what else could I do? I wasn't just going to _leave_ you here with all your injuries untended."

My blush deepened. _A __**week and a half**__? He's been taking care of me for __**that**__ long? _I felt the dire need to protest. "But what about Vincenius? Getting him would've saved you all that time-"

But Venser shook his head. "No. I thought about it, but he's been incredibly busy lately – When I went back to make sure I had everything, I found out there was another raid on the camp shortly after we came to Ravnica. Doc's been busy tending to the injured, and knowing him, he probably hasn't gotten any sleep in days. I knew I could deal with your injuries on my own, so I just borrowed what stuff I needed from him and left. I'm sure he won't mind. He said I could use it if I ever needed to."

I shook my head in disbelief. I couldn't stop the heat that had spread so quickly and so unexpectedly across my cheeks, so I just tried my best to ignore it. "I can't believe it. You really didn't have to do all that for me, Ven…"

"Of course I did!" I looked up, startled to find the artificer significantly closer to my face now. He had the same little bottle from before in his hands, and he was leaning in to press his finger on my brow, above both eyes. It was hot, but this time I could feel mana as it coursed into me, along my nerves and down my spine. "Stop acting like you're not worth my time, Rana. I'm not going to have any of that." Finished, he pulled back and smiled. This expression held no less warmth than any of his others, but for whatever reason, I felt something in my chest stutter a little when I met it. "I had the skills to help you, and I used them. I'm going to keep using them, too, up until you're fully healed."

I realized that he wasn't going to budge from his point, so I sighed and allowed myself to lean back against my pillows. My hair splayed out all around my head, but I didn't care enough to fix it. "Fine. I give. You win." I noted out of the corner of my eye when his smile morphed itself into a wry grin, and I couldn't help but laugh. I felt my own smile coming on, unbidden. "But…thank you, Ven. I don't really remember much of what happened, but I'm grateful that it's you who's taking care of me."

Venser flushed again. I wanted to giggle. He was…cute, when he was embarrassed.

_Wait…what? _

"Uh…" He reached up to muss his hair a little. "Well, you're, ah…you're welcome." He was looking down at his knees now, but it wasn't enough to hide the fact that his grin had broadened. "It's what I do."

There didn't seem to be more to say, so for a moment I simply lied there, still and warm and comfortable beneath all my blankets - and despite the fact that my body felt weaker than I had ever remembered it, I couldn't feel any pain. Whatever Venser had concocted up to numb me, it was working like a charm. "What all of me is hurt, anyway?"

"Hm?" Venser looked up and blinked, as if slipping out of a daze. "Oh. Well, your skull was cracked open, which is why you lost so much blood at first. That's mostly healed, though – I put the majority of my effort toward getting that to repair itself, since I figured that was the most dangerous." Frowning in concentration, he began to count off my injuries on his fingers. "Both your legs are broken, which is what's keeping you bedridden for so long. The first layer of your skin was badly burned, and you had all kinds of minor scratches and bruises everywhere on your body." Abruptly, he blushed. "Uh…mostly on your torso, so if you feel any soreness there, it's probably because they're scarring over. I let those heal on their own – I just put a poultice on them to prevent infection."

I tried to move my legs. I could do it, but the flare of pain that accompanied the motion was a strong deterrent from trying again. I winced. "That's…" I gasped, trying to fight back the wave of nausea that swiftly followed in the wake of my discomfort. "That's…a lot to work with."

Venser laughed nervously. "Yeah. It is, but like I said, it's mostly your legs that are the trouble. Everything else is either healed or healing." He stood up to procure a tiny vial with some pale blue liquid from the table, which he came back over and handed to me. I took it, examining the contents with a careful eye. "Here, drink this. It'll help with your stomach." I trusted him, so I did. The stuff was a little hard to swallow, but it didn't taste unpleasant – like milk mixed with honey water, oddly enough. I felt a tickle in the back of my throat once I had gulped it down, and I was about to ask him if that was a normal side effect when a thought inched its way into my mind and gave me pause.

_Blue…_

Suddenly, my heart stopped. All the questions that had been bubbling on my tongue, of how Venser and I had gotten out of the damn tunnels alive in the first place, or what it was that had saved us, or what had happened to Alanor and the cult, were crushed beneath the weight of my newfound panic.

"Jace," I gasped, jerking forward to take hold of the artificer's arm. My movement was so sudden that it must have startled him, because he flinched, and his eyes went wide. "Venser, where is he? Where's Jace? What _happened_ to him?"

"Calm down, Rana," he said, tone dropping to a comforting rumble as he placed both of his hands overtop mine. Despite the touch, my heartbeat picked up instead of slowed down. "He's fine. He's over in…Ovitzia, I think it was ? He's visiting some healer friend of his. He said that if she ever found out he got hurt and didn't come straight to her, she'd kill him. Considering all that, I'd say he's in considerably better shape than you."

Even as relief washed over me, my heart sank. _She? _"Oh." I let my hand slip from Venser's arm, but he kept ahold of it even so, until my breathing slowed and I allowed my shoulders to slump. "Well, that's…that's a relief to hear. Sorry for freaking out." I shook my head, and took a deep breath in an attempt to relax. It didn't work. _Well,_ _at least I tried._ "How did we even get back here, anyway? I thought for sure that _I _was dead. I'd lost so much blood…"

Venser hesitated, exhaling deeply as he shrugged. "You did, but…well…" He bit his lower lip. "Akroma was able to stop it in time. She stopped your body from going into shock, too."

_Who? _I wanted to ask, but before I could even open my mouth there was a clattering to my right, and I turned my head to see an exquisitely beautiful woman leaning against the doorframe, gold and turquoise-encrusted wings framing a cascade of violet hair. She shifted in position and crossed her arms over her chest, causing the sword at her back to make the same clattering sound from before as it bounced against her equally-adorned armor.

My jaw dropped.

_An…__**angel**__? _

"Unfortunately," she spoke, voice rich and resonant, "I could not do more at the time." She bowed her head a little as she regarded me, but I could only stare back at her in complete wonderment. I might have been embarrassed of my behavior, had I been in less of a state of shock. "I had already expended a great deal of mana destroying the cult leader and his summon, and healing magic has never been my specialty. As such, I left the task of your recovery to this young man here."

"I…" I couldn't think of what to say. A million thoughts were racing through my mind as I met her eyes, which seemed to shift color from green to blue to violet to black, then even to a shimmering gold. "You…you killed Alanor?"

"Beheaded him," Venser whispered, leaning in close. "One clean stroke." I winced, and he nodded sympathetically. "The rest of the cultists fled the second they saw it."

Across from us, Akroma stood tall and nodded.

"He and his forces were causing harm to the man who summoned me, and to his allies," she said simply. She raised one gauntleted hand as she spoke, and for a moment I marveled at how white and pristine her armor was. It nearly glittered with a light of its own. "You were at a disadvantage, and all three of you were close to death. I saw no other option. I had to kill him."

"We thank you for that," Venser murmured. He seemed to sense that I was still processing what she had said, and so he bowed his head to the angel respectfully, as she had done. One hand lifted off of mine to curl into a fist and clap firmly against his heart. "It's true – You did save our lives, when you intervened back there. We're all in your debt, Akroma."

She nodded, and to my surprise I saw a hint of a smile touch the corners of her lips. "No," she said softly, "it is I who am in your debt. I have been given new life thanks to your companion. As he regards you in high esteem, so too shall I. My sword is yours to command should you wish it."

Though I wasn't sure how to go about dispensing pleasantries when it came to an angel, I couldn't hold back my question any longer. It was about ready to burst through my rib cage. "Akroma," I said, leaning forward as much as I could without causing any pain in my legs, "what do you mean, 'your summoner?' Who are you talking about?"

"Ah." The angel uncrossed her arms, slowly, and a genuine smile began to spread across her face. "I apologize. I suppose I should explain." Gently, she cleared her throat. "The summoner I speak of is your Jace Beleren." At those words I swallowed hard, and I noticed that she was looking directly at me now, eyes sharp. My cheeks heated for what felt like the hundredth time in the past fifteen minutes. _**My**__ Jace?_ "Long ago, my first master Ixidor shaped me into being in a dream, without his own knowledge. His grief for his lost wife was so great, and his will and command of mana so strong, that I simply manifested as flesh – a whole being. I passed long ago, however, and I was unaware that some shred of my consciousness still existed until your battle one week ago. Jace Beleren commands a similar magic to Ixidor, though it is not quite the same – But nevertheless, his desperate grief as he saw his companions fall reached me in whatever place I existed, and I responded to it, likely because I could connect to the tide of mana flowing through him. I have a feeling there is something more to it, but…at this moment, I know not what it is." She shrugged delicately. "I simply know that I am here now, and that there must be some purpose for my being called back into this world."

Beside me, Venser let out a quiet sigh. "Huh." I turned to him, and found him staring intently at Akroma, brow furrowed. He folded his hands together beneath his chin. "Akroma, would I be correct in saying that you were once part of Karona?"

The angel nodded, though she looked a bit taken aback. "You would."

Venser smiled, and suddenly I noticed a gleam in those brown eyes of his. "Just like Jeska…" There was a pause, and then at last his other hand let go of mine and he sat up, leaning heavily against his knees. His gaze continued to bore a hole through Akroma's. "Well, I have a theory. It's a little far-fetched, but I think it has some merit."

Akroma tilted her head. A flicker of amusement crossed her porcelain face. "Go on."

"My theory," Venser began, leaning forward, "is that you, too, have a planeswalker spark now. Not like Urza or anyone like him, but…like mine. Like Jace's and Rana's." His gaze flicked to me briefly, and I gave him a look that made clear my confusion as to what was going on – but to my dismay, he simply winked in response. When he looked away, I realized that there was something fluttering in my chest, and I briefly wondered whether or not my fractured skull had been accompanied by any brain trauma.

"Jeska was a part of Karona too, as Phage," the artificer continued. "When she was reborn as her original self, she was Jeska Planeswalker. She said that she didn't understand how it had happened, but then again, do any of us really know much about the spark? I know I don't." He paused for a moment, and then suddenly he inhaled sharply, eyes widening. His face erupted in a grin. Clearly, he had just thought of something important. "It fits, too! Your spark could have provided that extra tether to our world that allowed you to latch onto Jace, and use his mana to pull you back into existence!"

Though Akroma was skilled at keeping her expression neutral, I caught one brief instant where her own eyes widened, and she leaned forward from the doorframe. "I see what you are saying," she said, her voice a thoughtful murmur. "You are right. It is far-fetched – but yet, it makes sense."

Venser nodded eagerly. "I wouldn't go rushing headlong into the Blind Eternities anytime soon, but I certainly think it's worth giving some thought."

The angel nodded. "Yes. Indeed I will, Venser. I thank you."

The artificer blushed, and I smiled as I saw the redness spread all the way up to his ears. _Dammit, why am I smiling at him so much? _"You're more than welcome," he said quietly.

When Akroma's gaze shifted smoothly to me, I straightened up without even realizing what I was doing. Her presence was so commanding that the motion was almost an instinctual response, as was the way I sucked in my breath and held it tight.

"What are you going to do now?" I found myself asking, before blinking in surprise at the words that had come out of my mouth. I couldn't help it – beneath my veneer of reverence, I was genuinely curious. What could such a creature like her – a radiant, potential-planeswalker _angel_, something I had never even _dreamed_ of meeting – possibly have in mind as far as her goals went? Did she want to lead armies to victory in glorious battle? Did she want to serve as the vanguard in some all-out effort to save to world, a beacon of hope and light for all the people she commanded? Would she, perhaps, be willing to help us in our fight, and to save my home plane from complete consumption?

"Me?" The angel smiled, and I could feel its warmth from all the way across the room. "As I told you, I am in your debt. Until the day that Jace Beleren dismisses me, I will fight for whatever cause he allies himself to, and I will protect those he holds dear so long as I am able."

I blinked. _Wait._ _Could it…really be that easy? _"Did Jace tell you about what we're all planning to do? Is that why you're sticking with him?"

She shook her head, and I watched as one lustrous strand of hair tumbled down and into her face. My breath caught in my throat at the sight, and I wondered how a single living being could possibly be so beautiful. "No," she said, eyes meeting mine for one brief, charged second. "He has not."

"But I do believe there is plenty of time for the three if you to fill me in, yes?"

* * *

><p>It took nearly two more weeks for me to fully regain the use of my legs, but it was two weeks well spent.<p>

Whenever plans weren't being discussed and battles recounted with Akroma, I was simply spending time with Venser – which, not in the least to my surprise, was always enjoyable. No matter how dark the circles under the artificer's eyes grew, or how long I heard him tinkering away at his makeshift desk in the opposite corner of the room as I slipped beneath the cloak of sleep, he never failed to greet me with a warm smile.

One morning I awoke to find him fast asleep in a chair beside my bed, a vial rolling in one open palm and a thick strip of leather tightly clutched in the other. I didn't have the heart to wake him, so I simply reclined against my pillows until he did on his own, and tried not to smile too big when he yawned and stretched his arms high above his head.

"This is for you," he said sleepily, once he had roused himself enough, and then he handed me the strip of leather. When I turned it over, I realized that it was an armband – carved all around both edges with a tiny, intricate leaf pattern, so small that at first I wondered if I hadn't imagined it. My heart leapt at the sight.

"You need something to wear Elspeth's sigil on, don't you?" His eyelids drooped, but still he smiled at me kindly. When I could only stare at him, mouth slightly agape, he laughed. "Besides, I needed something to pass the time when I'm not talking to you."

_No you don't_, I thought, even as I felt the sudden urge to force the last vial of his sleeping elixir down his throat. Unbidden, I felt a lump forming in my own. _You've been staying up nearly every night trying to make these potions and poultices and whatever the hells else they are for me, and you've worked yourself completely ragged. You didn't need to pass the time. You need to __**sleep**__. You made this because you __**wanted**__ to…_

…_for whatever damn reason…_

Instead of chastising the artificer, though, I just smiled, and wrapped the warm leather around my upper arm. "Thank you, Ven," I said. My voice was quieter than usual, but for once, I didn't ask myself any questions. "It's…it's really pretty. I love it."

"Here, I'll get that for you," he said, and he leaned forward to tie the laces snug where my fumbling grasp had failed. I could see that he was beaming. The calluses on his fingers felt rough when they brushed against my skin, but…in truth, it wasn't a bad feeling. His touch was gentle. I assumed it was from years and years of working with small, delicate, breakable things – a category which, apparently, a woman like me could be counted among.

_When did I start thinking about stuff like this? _I wondered, even as I fought back the blush that threatened to give away my sentimentality.

* * *

><p>When the two weeks had at last drawn to a close, I was well enough to be walking on my own again, though I still needed Venser's help to make my way up and down the stairs.<p>

I put the majority of my weight against his shoulder now as I swung myself out and down, hovering over the next step for a moment before I finally alighted.

"Better!" the artificer exclaimed. His arm around me squeezed lightly, and he grinned. I turned to him and returned the expression. "Next time try not to lean on me so much, but still, that was definitely an improvement!"

My laugh then came out more like a snort. I didn't care enough to be embarrassed, though. "I'm sure my tribe would've just loved to see me like this, huh? One of their best and brightest hunters, needing the arm of a big strong _man _to help me climb down twenty feet – Spirits, I'd be laughed out of the home tree!"

Venser chuckled, and helped hoist me a little as I hobbled my way down the next two steps. "Well then, I would have to teleport up there and yell at them until they personally dragged you back and apologized. I can see a little teasing about _one_ broken leg, but _two_?" His eyes shone as they held mine. "Now that's just downright mean."

The ceiling lowered over my head as we passed into the common room landing, and I was about to open my mouth to respond when suddenly my eye caught a glimpse of bright blue – which, when I paused and looked again, revealed itself to be a familiar tattered cloak. My heart skipped a beat.

"Jace!" I cried, and made to jump down the last three stairs before Venser caught me and held me back, keeping me from tumbling flat on my face. I nearly laughed aloud at my own stupidity.

"Ranewen," the mage breathed. He set down the book he was perusing and swept to his feet in one quick motion, his cloak billowing out around him. When his gaze fell on mine, my breath caught in my throat at the emotion in those blue eyes. For a moment – just one – I caught their profound relief before something in them shifted and they became inscrutable again, but it was enough. Jace made his way over toward the two of us, and I had to resist the urge to launch myself at him and hug him until he passed out. Having been worried sick about him for the past two weeks, it was more than a little difficult.

"Venser," he said, smiling warmly at the artificer as we descended the last stair and he came to stand in front of us. "It's really good to see the two of you alright."

"A little less than alright," I corrected, sticking out the better of my two legs, "but I'm getting there."

Jace's eyes widened for an instant, but then he relaxed, and shook his head. He chuckled. "Well, it's better than dead, that's for sure." There was a pause, and then the small smile faded from his face as quickly as it had appeared, to be replaced with a concerned frown. "I…thought you _were _dead for awhile, Rana. You have no idea how relieved I was when Akroma told me you were safe…"

My heart nearly stopped outright this time. _Rana. He used my __**nickname**__. _I shook my own head, vehemently, and now that I wasn't on the stairs anymore I pulled gently free of Venser and took a step closer to the mage. It was more like a shuffle, in truth, but I managed. "Well then, how do you think I felt? The last thing I see of you is you lying on the ground, bloody, in the middle of a circle of cultists – and then when we make it out of everything alive, I don't get to see you for three weeks!"

"Two," Venser corrected from behind me. I didn't turn around to see his face, but his tone clearly held a hint of amusement. "You were mostly unconscious for the first one, if you remember."

I rolled my eyes, though I couldn't help my grin. "Right. Whatever. _Two _weeks." I lifted my gaze to meet Jace's again, and when he held it unwaveringly I felt my heartbeat pick up to doubletime. "All that time, I have no idea how you're doing, or even where you are, really. I have no clue where Ovitzia is." I folded my arms over my chest with a huff. "So you're not going to get any sympathy complaining to me, got it? And I mean it, too."

Jace barked out a short laugh. He smiled, and the expression quickly spread all the way up to the corners of his eyes as they bunched. "Right. Sure. I'll just, uh…_pretend_ I believe you, okay?" But before I could protest – or even respond – he reached out to pull me into a hug, warm and welcome and friendly, and I found it very hard to breathe. The gesture drew a small squeak from me before I could stop it. Suddenly, I was _very _sure that Jace could hear my now-frantic heartbeat. _Great._

I wasn't one to complain, though, so it didn't take long for me to relax and melt into the embrace.

The only thing that stopped me from doing so completely, however, was the strange sensation that I felt when Jace's right arm wrapped itself around my back.

I laughed gently as he pulled away a moment later, keeping his hands on my shoulders to hold me out at arm's length. "What, are you wearing armor beneath that glove now?" Even with the fabric covering it, his touch had felt…different – smooth, and strangely hard. It felt as if he had on some sort of metal gauntlet beneath the glove, which he always wore all the way up his right arm. Or perhaps he had injured his hand worse than Venser had admitted, and it was some sort of rehabilitative brace. The latter thought sent a pang of sympathy straight through my gut.

"Ah." Jace's voice had dropped at least an octave, and now instead of its previous cheer, his tone held only…anxiety. I furrowed my brow as I looked at him, puzzled. All he could do was shake his head and sigh.

"I figured this would come up eventually, but not so soon. …Damn."

"What?" I asked.

Behind me, Venser's breath hitched. This time I turned to look at the artificer, and his eyes were wide. A chill of dread rolled down my spine. "Don't tell me…"

"Yeah." Jace chuckled, ruefully, and began to peel off his glove. "I won't tell, I'll show."

He let the fabric fall to the floor, and then when he pushed up his sleeve with his other hand, I gasped.

There, in the place of his flesh-and-blood arm, was a twisting amalgamation of metal and mana, the dull grey alloy glowing blue under its own light source. His metal fingertips came to points at the ends of long, thick strands of more metal, and as I stared in a mix of horror and fascination he wiggled them, like any normally accoutered person might do.

I couldn't speak, so fortunately Venser came to stand by my side and do it for me. As he, too, stared, he shook his head in disbelief.

"I think you have some explaining to do, Jace," he said quietly.


	21. Chapter 21

"Jace." I didn't know what to say beyond his name, so it took me a moment to pause and collect my thoughts. I shook my head. "I…what is…" I shook it again, deep creases marring my brow as I stared at the metal that stuck out from the mage's sleeve. _I can't believe this. _"What…what in the nine damn hells _is _that thing? What did you _do_?"

"Huh. It's some kind of alloy even _I've _never seen before," Venser remarked, bending down a little so as to get a closer look. He tapped the metal with one knuckle, and it let out a soft hollow ring. He straightened and blinked in surprise. "And for Windgrace's sake, I'm a _planeswalking artificer_!" He scowled, fingers ruffling through his hair. "Knowing about these types of things is supposed to be my job…"

"That's not the point, Ven," I snapped. "It doesn't matter _what _it is! What matters is where his _arm-_-"

"It's etherium," Jace interrupted then. I stared at him in shock, but he didn't so much as spare me a glance when he bent his arm at the elbow, letting it flex for Venser to see. In fact, it almost looked like he was avoiding my gaze on purpose. Anger bubbled in my chest. "Common on Esper. Almost every one of the higher-ups has a body part made out of it, and they pretty much use it as a type of currency, too."

"Hmmm." Venser couldn't seem to make up his mind as to whether or not he liked what he saw. When he straightened up fully and began to stroke the faint brush of beard on his chin, though, his eyes were narrowed. He didn't look pleased. "It's not Phyrexian, then? It almost looks it…"

"No." Jace spoke quickly, shaking his head hard enough to toss his dark hair about. "Not at all. I know it looks a little…" he wiggled his fingertips again, eyes falling down to their tapered points, "…_menacing_, but I promise you, it's fine."

"_Fine_?" That was it. I had had it. I needed answers, _now_. Growling, I took a hard step forward, and ignored the resulting pain that shot up my legs and made me wince. Venser saw and reached out with a hand to try and steady me, but I angrily brushed him away. "You call this _fine_, Jace?" I reached out to grab the metal limb and hold it up in front of him, my reflexes quicker than he had anticipated. I felt my fingers close around his wrist. "You're bloody delusional! For the spirits' sakes, your whole damn _arm _is _gone_!" I shook the limb forcefully, and to my surprise he just…let me. The thing felt strangely warm in my hand, but yet it hung limp as a dead fish. I only barely noticed the wisps of black that had begun to curl from beneath my fingertips, and wind around his. "You're going to tell me what happened to you, and you're going to tell me_ now_, Beleren!"

Jace flinched visibly at the sound of his name. "I…uh." He swallowed hard, and with my grip still tight around him, he turned to look at Venser. When I did the same, I was surprised to see the artificer's face twisted with a sudden guilt. My heart did something strange in my chest as I felt confusion take hold of me. "Well, I…"

"Jace," Venser sighed, "just tell her."

Now it was my stomach's turn to act up. "What are you two talking about?" My voice had lost some of its sharpness, however much I tried to keep it in there. My eyes widened against my will. "What's going on?"

Jace took advantage of my moment of confusion to gently extricate himself from my grasp. I frowned when I realized this, but I didn't make a move to seize him again. There was no need. The mage let out a sigh too, now, long and deep and far too burdened for my liking. "I'm, uh…not quite sure how to say this to you, Rana. I'm afraid you're going to panic on me."

I almost laughed, and _would_ have had Jace not just used my nickname again. _Damn him_, I thought. I strained to keep from getting visibly flustered. _How can one stupid little word have so much power over me? Spirits__** damn**__ him. _"Well, I'm already on the verge of panic," I spat, caustically, "so I think it would be in your best interest to just tell me before things get any worse."

Jace looked to Venser again. The artificer shrugged helplessly, and Jace pressed the fingertips of his left hand – his flesh hand – between his eyebrows.

"Ugh," he groaned. "Alright, alright." He took a deep, slow breath. I held mine, whether or not that was a good idea.

"Rana…I lost my arm in the battle. When I summoned Akroma. She told me that was the price her first summoner paid to bring her into existence, and, well…that was the price I had to pay, too."

I could almost hear the anger rushing out of me in a hiss. My breath went with it. "Jace…" My heart dropped all the way down to my knees, and suddenly I felt like I wanted to collapse, to just go to sleep and pretend none of this damn business with Alanor had ever happened. I felt just a little sick. "You…lost your..." My shoulders slumped, and I couldn't bring myself to finish whatever disjointed sentence had been forming in my throat. I swallowed back the lump there, and a well of tears with it. "Spirits…I'm so sorry. I didn't know." I looked up into Jace's eyes, fixed firmly on the floor, and then slid my gaze to the left, to Venser. He was looking away too, and shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably. Just then, something in me clicked.

"You knew," I whispered. Hurt blossomed in me as I stared intently at the artificer. My eyes narrowed. "You knew about this the entire time, and you didn't tell me."

Venser's eyes widened as hurt spread across his own face, and he opened his mouth to say something before Jace held up a silencing hand. Venser and I both turned to look at him, and the mage shook his head. "He didn't know that I was going to be attaching this arm," he said quietly, "and I made him promise not to say anything to you until you were better. You were in bad shape. I didn't want to cause you any more stress than you were already under. So if you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me, not him."

My face fell. I _wanted_ to be mad, to be angry or upset or _anything_ that involved harsh, negative emotions right now, but…I couldn't. I had no reason to be – the men had kept what had happened a secret out of a desire to protect, not to hurt. How could I fault them for that?

Still though, this was not a pleasant piece of news. I could at least be upset in that regard.

I shuffled my way over to a couch and sat down heavily, not even bothering to ask Jace or Venser if I could be excused. I didn't really care what they thought about it, at the moment. My legs hurt like hells. "So tell me then," I said, once I had arranged myself into a comfortable position with my head against one arm of the couch and my legs propped up atop the other, "how did you get ahold of that metal…thing? That arm?" I waved my own arm in a dismissive gesture. Surprisingly, I wasn't panicking – If anything, I felt an odd sense of numbness, though I knew that it would fade away after a couple more minutes or so. I supposed I could work with it while it lasted. "Did you just conveniently have one lying around at the back of your closet or something?"

Jace and Venser were in the process of crossing the room to meet me, and as they sat themselves down on the couch opposite mine, the mage sighed. There was a soft chuckle hidden somewhere in that sound. "Actually," he said, as he settled back to rest his elbow on his knee and his chin in his left hand, "I did."

That I hadn't been expecting. Even Venser turned to fix his companion with a look of puzzlement, then. My face must have mirrored his. "Wait, what?"

Now Jace really chuckled, though there was something dark hidden within his tone that made me shiver. "You sure you want to hear it?" He smiled. The bitterness in that smile gave me a start, and I wondered what he could possibly be about to say that could color his face with such an emotion. "This isn't going to make me sound like a good guy."

"Well, now you _have_ to tell me." I rolled over onto my side so that I was facing him, and idly attempted to rub the soreness out of the leg that held more weight. It didn't work.

Jace shrugged. "If you say so." There was a brief pause in which he looked down at his etherium right arm, with his usual inscrutable expression – only this time, his handsome blue eyes were cold as ice. I felt another chill course its way through my body, as if their glare had become tangible and reached out to stab me. _I'm not going to like this, am I?_

"This arm," he continued finally, deliberately, "once belonged to my oldest enemy, Tezzeret."

Venser's eyes shot wide as saucers, and though I didn't understand the strength of his reaction, I did feel a knot of hesitant disgust twisting in my stomach at Jace's words. _No._ _He can't mean…_

"Tezzeret? You mean the Tezzeret we found in the depths of Ish Sah? _That _Tezzeret?"

Jace turned to look at Venser, and the expression of utter shock that he found when he did sent the mage's own eyes widening. Apparently _he_ hadn't expected Venser' reaction, either.

"Glowy etherium arm?" he asked. "White hair, nasty scars on his face?"

"Yeah," Venser breathed.

Jace nodded, slowly. "That's the one."

"How did you even _get_ that arm?" Venser beat me to the punch before I had the time to open my mouth, or before Jace had the time to elaborate. The artificer's expression had now morphed to one of mingled amazement and disbelief. "The one he had when I saw him was completely fused to his shoulder – If you wanted it, you would've had to-"

"Cut it off," Jace finished – and his tone was quiet and sharp, leaving no room for argument. "With a manablade." He paused for breath, and his fists, fallen to his lap, clenched so tightly that the knuckles on his left hand turned a stark white. "I did it, but we were in a fight to the death at the time, if that makes any difference. The arm has a hell of a lot of power, and I didn't want it to remain in his possession."

Venser could only shake his head. His gaze fell to Jace's – Tezzeret's? – arm, and he drank in the sight of it as long as he dared before at last looking away. When he did, he shook his head again.

"You shouldn't have been able to do that," he said. His eyes unfocused as they stared out the window across from the couch, and his voice turned as soft as I had ever heard it. "Your body should've gone into shock from just trying to attach it. Even master artificers die fitting themselves with non-organic parts, and you're…not even a novice. I don't understand."

Jace smiled thinly, but he didn't look at Venser either. "Well, that was the fun part about accidentally gaining all of Tezzeret's memories when I mind-wiped him." His left hand traced paths across the smooth, dull surfaces of his metal arm, and his gaze softened. "Learned everything there is to know about etherium, since he considers himself an expert. So at least that's something good." He shrugged languidly, taking the moment to roll his shoulders and test their range of motion. Everything seemed to be in working order, from what I could tell. "I went to Emmara's because I knew it would be a dangerous process, even with all that knowledge. She helped stave off the shock and the worst of the sickness, so…" He finally turned to Venser and the artificer to him, and he shrugged again. "Does that explain everything properly?"

Venser hesitated, but after a moment he nodded. Strangely enough, he looked a little defeated. The expression was only there for a moment, though, and it disappeared as quickly as it had come. "Yeah. I guess that's the best answer I'm gonna get, so I'll take it." He smile, too, was hesitant. "Well, I'm glad you're alive, Jace. You really pushed yourself through a mire of shit, didn't you?"

"We're both glad," I said quietly. Both men turned to look at me when I spoke, and I simply shrugged in response. "It's the truth."

Jace's smile widened. I almost blushed at the sight of it – almost, but not quite. _I'm getting better at this._

"So, Rana." Venser's voice came as a surprise, and I turned my head almost jerkily in an attempt to change direction and look at him, partially out of reflex. He had folded his hands together in front of him, and was now resting his chin on the tips of his fingers. "Now that the three of us are here, we should probably discuss…" His gaze shifted from one end of the room to the other, and when he was apparently satisfied with his search, he leaned in closer. "…you know."

My brow furrowed. "Know what?" Then, during the brief silence, I became aware of my pulse throbbing in my neck, and abruptly I understood. "Oh!" Alongside understanding, dread rose up like a wave in the pit of my stomach. "Oh, you mean…Sorin. Right."

Venser nodded. Next to him, I noticed that Jace's lips had hardened into a tight line.

"Well…what about him do you want to know?"

"You don't have to tell us the details," Jace responded immediately, words clipped, "just the most important things. What he did to you."

Without even thinking, I shook my head. I remembered Sorin's words of veiled threat, and the bitterness behind them that had taken me by surprise. The memory of them gave me pause, and I found myself searching for someone's gaze – something solid to hold onto, even as I floundered mentally. I found Venser's first, alert and bright, and his brown eyes latched onto mine as naturally as if they belonged there. Fear knifed at my insides. It must have reflected in my expression, because, to my immense relief, he understood. I praised the spirits.

"Jace," he said softly, "I don't think she feels like it's safe to tell us. Maybe we should-"

"_No_." The mage's voice was firm, harsh, and I saw a hint of the cold steel from before creep its way into his eyes. Both the artificer and I flinched back as one. "Venser, we have to know. I'm not going to let Sorin have his way with her, no matter how important he may be to what we're doing. Even if we have to keep him with us, I _have_ to know what he's trying to do. It's the only way we can keep her safe."

_Keep me safe? _My head spun foolishly at the thought of Jace wanting to protect me, straying then to my memory of the rescue that had been our first meeting. He had used the word "we" just now, granted, but still…

"Well then, why don't you just ask if you can read her mind? That's what you do, isn't it? Then you can pin it on yourself if she's under threat not to tell, and Sorin finds out."

At the mention of his magic, Jace froze. His expression, on the other hand, melted like a snowdrift in spring, and a note of supreme worry found its way into his eyes quicker than I could comprehend.

"Rana," he said haltingly, "I…could do that, but…"

"But what?" My heart suddenly started to beat faster at the prospect of Jace rummaging through my thoughts, laying the innermost recesses of my mind as bare as they could ever be. I didn't fear the intrusion – not from him, I trusted him – but the thought of him finding out about my stupid, childish feelings for him…

_He probably already knows, idiot. And they're not childish – You're an adult. You're allowed to feel whatever the hells you want._

I swore near-silently, under my breath. What a perfect time to start arguing with myself.

"Rana, it's really not a pleasant process. I'll be gentle, of course, but still, it's-"

I shook my head. _Screw everything. I'm already in enough trouble. _"No, Jace, it's…it's fine. Don't worry about it. I'll just tell you."

The mage tilted his head to the side in confusion at my sudden reversal, but he didn't argue. "You're sure? That's, uh…really what you want to do?"

I forced a smile and nodded. "Yeah. It's okay, really. I trust you both. If I end up getting in any sort of trouble I can't handle, I know I can come to you. It's fine."

Jace nodded, and beside him Venser smiled. I smiled back – though this time, it was a little more sincere. _At least that's a start._

The smile didn't last for long, however. As warm and encouraging as Venser and Jace both seemed, sitting perfectly still and patient as they waited for me to say something, the memories I dredged up of my fight with Sorin in Urborg were…distressing, to say the least. My heart skittered, and I found it hard to pull words from my throat.

"He…" I swallowed, and braced myself for the cracking in my voice that was sure to come. I knew it would. It was a _guarantee_. "He challenged me to a fight when I asked him if he could tell me more about the Eldrazi, and I was stupid enough to accept. We planeswalked to Urborg." I could see Venser's brow arch at the mention of his home plane, but he said nothing. He simply listened. So I continued. "He completely overwhelmed me, and then…" I could feel my hands starting to shake. "…he…stabbed me. Through the shoulder. Threw me down on the ground, and made me drink his blood if I wanted to live. I didn't really have a choice." And there it was – the inevitable crack. _I knew it would happen. _"He told me to sleep, then, and I passed out. I…I couldn't _not_. It wasn't under my control." I shook my head, slowly, not meeting the gaze of either man for a moment as I sucked in a deep breath and let it out with a _whoosh_. Somehow, it made me feel a bit better. "When I woke up, I was lying on this couch like you found me. And…that's that."

There was a long stretch of silence. When I finally did have the courage to look up, my eyes instantly went to Jace – and I regretted the decision, for his were blazing with hellsfire. His fists were clenched so tightly at his knees that I worried they might snap, and his face was flushed a hot red with anger. I turned to Venser instead, not wanting to see Jace like that, and I found him to be staring at me with a similar expression of shock from before. He shook his head when my eyes found his.

"Damn it," Jace hissed. "Damn it, damn it, damn it. That goddamn _bastard _did something that can be taken a million different ways!"

Venser and I both turned to face the mage. I felt my stomach churn at the frustration in Jace's voice, knowing that it couldn't mean anything good. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," he growled, "drinking a vampire's blood is almost always a bad idea, but Sorin's a damn planeswalker – and he's probably older than all of us combined. There's no telling what that could've done to you. Literally. He could've instilled a sort of latent vampirism in you, or he could've taken some small control over your mind, or he could've just healed you with black magic. I don't know. I _can't _know."

My heart dropped like a stone. "But…how can I find out? Is there any way?" Desperation and panic fought for dominance as they clawed their way through my veins, shredding my insides in their wake. I turned to Venser, wide-eyed. "Come on, Ven, _you _have to know something! Please, I…" My voice trailed off. There was nothing I could say with words that I hadn't already said with every other part of me that could speak – I was shaking, and even though I still lay on my side on the couch, I had drawn my knees up tight to my chest. I was suddenly very cold, and the heat of this position offered some small comfort.

Venser, though, shook his head. He looked utterly pained to have to do so, but his anguish didn't make me feel any better. In fact, it made me feel worse. _Shit. __**Shit**__. This can't be happening, it can't…_

"Believe me," Jace snarled, and I found my eyes abruptly drawn to his even in my state of near-to-erupting panic, "I'll get it out of him one way or another." He stared directly at me, his gaze searing with heat. I felt my breath catch in my throat. "I _promise_, Rana."

It was…well, really, it was all I had. It was the best I could get, even. I nodded, and gave Jace the most genuine smile I could muster as I forced myself to keep calm. My lips trembled, but I held the expression long enough for him to notice, and to relax a little. The sight of his shoulders sagging was a welcome relief – I didn't think I could handle a minute more of that rage in his eyes, or the way I could nearly hear his teeth grinding against one another as he glared at me. It struck something in me. And that something was more than I cared to feel right now.

"I'm so sick of this," I blurted out suddenly. It was odd, not only because I was still in the middle of trying to hold my smile, but also because I was barely even conscious of that thought existing in my mind – but nevertheless, a moment later my face cracked in half to send the pieces tumbling down around me. A grimace spread across my lips, and I found my hands covering my face, and my fingers digging into my skin as the most overwhelming sense of frustration surged through me. It all happened before I had a moment's chance to process what was going on.

"I just…" The words poured forth from my lips, unbidden. _Why am I…? _"I hate being the liability in this group. I _hate_ it. I hate losing. I hate having to make people take care of me." Tears strained against the corners of my eyes, but I pushed them back. My fingers dug deeper. _**No**__, damn it. _"I'm my tribe's _hunter_, for the spirits' sakes – I'm not some kind of pushover! I'm not _weak_, I swear to everything that's out there-!"

"Rana." There was a soft rustling sound, and then an instant later a hand was covering mine, and gently peeling it away from where it clung to my face. A second hand did the same with my other, and when I was forced to look ahead, I saw Venser kneeling beside where I lay on the couch. Jace had moved to the edge of his own seat, and for a moment I caught a flicker of irritation as it passed across his face, but…no, it wasn't there. I must have imagined it.

"Rana," Venser said again, gently, "we know you're not weak. You're just not used to fighting in the big leagues, that's all."

From behind Venser, Jace nodded. His smile was a little strained, but it was no less warm. "You just need a bit of an edge," he added. "Some training, or maybe a-"

He stopped midsentence. Venser turned to look at him, and the both of us saw Jace's eyes slowly widen as an expression of comprehension dawned across his face. He clapped his left fist in his etherium palm, making the metal ring out ever so slightly.

"I've got it," he crowed. His eyes were alight with triumph as he leaned forward over his knees, grinning. The sudden force of his emotion was startling, and I found myself taken aback. "Rana, remember how I said that planeswalkers can become ageless, so long as they find their own way of doing it that works?"

I wasn't quite sure where he was going with this, but his mention of the word "ageless" had my full attention already, and had washed away any notions of hesitance in a fraction of a second. I nodded, enthusiastically. "Of course I do!" was all I could think to say.

Jace chuckled. "Well." Even Venser was staring at him now, rapt, and I found myself breathless as the mage's expression of pure and utter victory swept me away. "Tell me – Which of those trees you summon in battle would you say is your favorite? Which one have you bonded with the most?"

I smiled. "That's easy. The one with the really thick arms and legs, and roots for a beard. I summoned it back when we were fighting Alanor's cult, remember?"

I hadn't thought it possible, but Jace's grin managed to broaden itself even further. "Yes, I remember. His name is Doran. I've met him before. And that's _exactly _the answer I was looking for."

I blinked. There was far too much information in that statement for me to process at once. "You…know it? Him? How?"

Jace tilted his head to the side a little and crossed his arms over his chest. He leaned back against the cushions of the couch. "He's a great sage in Lorwyn." He sounded calm on the surface now, but I could hear the excitement boiling just beneath his veneer. "One of their revered treefolk. I talked to him for a little while when I was visiting that plane, and he told me all sorts of things – One of which might pertain to you, if I've got it right."

Now _I _was the one who could barely contain my excitement. "And what would that be?"

"An ancient ritual. Any Lorwyn arboromancer with enough power can bind a portion of their soul to a specific tree, which will grant them even more power and will extend their lifespan so long as that tree lives." Jace's eyes positively gleamed as he leaned forward again, then stood to pace back and forth in front of his couch. He kept his gaze fixed on me all the while. "If that's just what happens when a _mage_ does it, then imagine what could happen if a _planeswalker_ like _you_ did it, Rana! That could very well be exactly what you need!"

My heart could have soared straight out of my chest. I could have run over to Jace and tackled him in a hug, had my legs been willing. Venser turned to smile at me, and I found myself beaming at him in return, breathlessly. Something warmed inside me at the sight of the expression that crossed his face when I did, but I was too excited about what Jace had said to concern myself with it for long. I looked up at the mage, who looked right back down at me with equal fervor.

"So we're going to Lorwyn, then," I said. It was most certainly _not_ a question.

Jace picked up on that fact, and grinned again. "Looks like it. As soon as your legs finish healing, we can set right out."

"It'll be another week or so before I would risk any travel, let alone planeswalking," Venser said, hauling himself to his feet and then holding out a hand to help me up. I took it, and gingerly the artificer assisted me in putting the right amount of weight on the right feet as I struggled into a standing position. "I can keep the essentials of my lab with me when we go, just in case something happens. Better safe than sorry." Eventually I balanced myself – and this time, I didn't need to lean on Venser's shoulder near as much as before. I felt massively buoyant. If I didn't hold tight to him, I was sure that I would float away right then and there.

But then Venser's words registered in my head, and I turned swiftly to look up at him. He met my gaze with equal parts confusion and concern, seeing the worry that I could feel in my own expression.

"You haven't been sleeping at all, Ven," I said, softly. "Are you sure you can handle a trip like that, in your condition?"

The artificer blinked. Clearly, he hadn't thought about that part.

"You don't need to feel compelled to go with us," Jace chimed in. His arms were folded over his chest again, and he was smiling as bright as before. "You've done a hell of a lot for us already. _We've_ been keeping you from Vincenius, and your work." His eyes glimmered now with something I couldn't quite discern, but his tone was as friendly as ever, so I didn't bother to push deeper. "I know Lorwyn fairly well, and I can assure you it'll be an easy trip. I know which places are safe and which aren't. We'll be fine."

Venser looked down at me again, hesitant. I returned his look with a kind smile, and rested my head on his shoulder for a brief moment.

"Go home and rest." The moment passed, and I lifted my head to fix him with a firm, unwavering stare. "Please. I've been worried about you for awhile now, and it's been driving me crazy." I held my stare for a moment longer before I finally faltered – No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't help but smile. "I promise I'll come and visit to tell you how it went when we get back, alright?"

There was a long pause. Then, finally, with a deep sigh, Venser relented. A smile crept across his face too, as he looked at me. "Alright…fair enough, Rana. You win. But you know which potions to take at what time by now, right?"

I nodded. "Yep!"

"And you promise you'll let me know if you run out of anything, or if there's any problems?"

I grinned. "Yep!"

"Promise you'll take it easy for awhile, alright?"

I giggled and rolled my eyes. "Ven, come on."

"I'm serious!"

I sighed, resisting the urge to laugh. "Okay, fine, fine, I promise. I'll take it easy." I rested my free hand on my hip, and cocked an eyebrow at the artificer. But only if you go straight back and get some sleep, okay?"

"You've got a deal." Before I could say anything more, Venser reached into one of the satchels at his belt and pulled out a little glass ball, small enough to fit in my closed fist. It was ringed around the edge in gold, and the air inside the glass was a shimmering milky color, swirling about itself like a heavy mist. He handed the thing to me, and I took it carefully. I looked up at the artificer in wonderment.

"What is this?" I asked. The trinket felt cool and smooth in my hands, and it was a little heavier than it looked. Still though, it was a comfortable weight.

Venser winked at me. To my surprise, I felt a hint of a blush creep involuntarily into my cheeks. "It's a little device I've been using for awhile. Break it, and I'll get a message that tells me your location. I'll come right to you." He chuckled, giving me a playful nudge with the shoulder I still rested against. "So you better only use it if you really need me, got it?"

I curved my fingers around the orb. I didn't quite know why, but as I held the little thing, I couldn't seem to stop myself from smiling. "Got it."

* * *

><p>"You're sure you don't want to come along, Akroma?"<p>

The angel stood beatifically in the glow of the sunrise that poured through the common room's windows, her wings bathed in a beautiful mix of pink and yellow. I couldn't help but look past her, at what sky was visible between the towering buildings of Ravnica – Red. Already, the clouds were fully tinged with the color, and I found myself reminded of an old merfolk saying back on Zendikar – _Red sky in morning, sailors take warning. _Too bad the human shipmasters they directed had always tended to ignore the little tidbit of wisdom. Ah well. Their loss. Of life, that is.

Before I had time to wonder whether or not the sky would prove to be a good omen or a bad omen for the start of our trip, Akroma shook her head. Her violet hair was as flawless as ever as it brushed the sides of her face, and she smiled at me radiantly. "No. I wish I could accompany the two of you, but I am not yet certain of whether or not I possess planeswalking powers, let alone how I might harness them. Venser's hypothesis is sound, but it is simply that – a hypothesis. It needs testing." She shrugged, the motion as fluid as only an angel could manage. "Perhaps by the time you return, I shall have come to a conclusion."

I nodded, returning the angel's smile. "I hope so. I'd really like to travel with you, Akroma."

Her eyes softened. "And I you. Until then, the speed of the gods be with you on your journey, both of you. And do not strain yourself, Lady Ranewen – Your legs have only recently healed. I fear that you will cause yourself further injury by pushing yourself too hard."

Beside me, Jace chuckled. "No need to worry. If she tries, I'll make sure to stop her."

I mock-scowled. Akroma nodded, obviously pleased. "Indeed. I should hope so, Jace Beleren. Take care, the both of you."

"And you as well," Jace said. He and I both bowed our heads respectfully to the angel, and then we stepped one after the other into Jace's ready-made portal to the Blind Eternities.

As was the norm now, my time – or lack thereof – in that place passed by in a blur, a mad rush of chaos that failed both description and comprehension alike. By the time I thought I had some sort of hold on it, it was simply over, and tangible mana tugged at my inner being while the sensations of physical reality buffeted my outer one.

Unfortunately – and much to my dismay – the only sensation I felt as I came to in our newest destination was the press of water all around me, and the choking burn it made as it flooded into my lungs.

_Definitely a bad omen_, was my only thought.


	22. Chapter 22

My limbs flailed about helplessly, as useless as if they weren't even there at all.

_Damn it! _My lungs still burned from when I had reflexively tried to breathe and only drawn in water, and the sensation was spreading all throughout my chest. It made it even harder to move. _I can't see – Damn it, __**no**__, I can't die like this! It's so stupid-There's no way-_

And perfectly on cue, my prayers were answered. I still couldn't see a thing through the smothering blackness around me, but I felt a hand on my arm then, pulling me up and up…

A second later, my head broke the surface of the water. I sucked in as deep a breath as I could manage, but there was hardly any room left in my lungs for air – so instead I coughed, violently, as my arms scrabbled for purchase. Eventually I found dry land and I clung to it tight, fingers digging deep into what I could feel to be soil beneath them.

"Unnnh." My throat hurt too much to talk, so I didn't. I simply groaned. It took a few seconds for my vision to clear, and when it did I saw Jace, pulling himself up onto the grassy bank beside me. It took him visible effort to do so, weighed down as he was by his sopping wet cloak. With a grunt, he struggled out of it and threw it in a heap on the ground, finally dragging himself all the way out of the water.

"Well, that didn't quite go as planned," he muttered. The leathers he wore on his chest seemed to be wicking away most of the water, but still not near enough. He unbuckled them and threw them aside too, leaving only a thin black shirt that clung to him. He flopped down heavily on his back. "Ugh…you okay, Rana?"

"Mmmph." It still hurt to talk. It took me a second longer to realize that the lower half of my body was still submerged, so with far too much effort than it should have taken, I clawed my way up and out. When I was finally free of the icy water, I collapsed in a heap next to Jace's pile of discarded clothes, on my stomach. Moving any further was not an option at this point.

A minute passed in silence, save for the quiet sounds as the both of us tried to catch our breath. I managed to roll to one side after a time, and then onto my back to stare up at the sky. I shivered. _Spirits, I'm freezing._

The second my thoughts started to wander, though, I felt something cold and wet slap me right across the face. When I blinked and reached up to peel it off, I found it to be Jace's shirt.

"Whoops," he said, sounding as if he were trying – and failing – to hold back a chuckle. "Missed. Sorry."

I scowled and dumped the thing unceremoniously into the pile beside me. "Yeah, yeah." My voice was just a little hoarse, but at least talking had become bearable. It was a start. "You're not fooling me. That was on purpose."

This time, Jace did chuckle. "Well, _excuse me_ for wanting to dry off. I wasn't planning on going swimming today, so I didn't quite dress appropriately. I'm _freezing_."

My breath came out in a soft laugh then. "If it makes you feel better, you're not the only one."

"Probably because your entire damn outfit is sticking to you." I could almost_ hear_ the wry grin in his voice, and I balked. "I mean, that's just a guess."

My cheeks flushed. For once, thanks to my current temperature, I welcomed the heat. _He probably can't see it, anyway._ I wasn't going to be walking around very well on my just-healed legs wearing clothes as wet as this – much less creeping silently, which is what I had planned on doing just in case – and they certainly weren't going to get any drier so long as they remained on me. _Well, great._

I paused for a moment as I considered my options, and then at last I sighed. _I'm __**not **__taking the leggings off. Consequences be damned._

"Look at me funny and I'll hit you," I grumbled, before pushing myself upright and undoing the laces of my vest, then sliding it off along with the simple green hunter's shirt I wore beneath it. I had made the smart decision of wearing a breast band today, _thank the spirits_, and so I wasn't really being immodest, but…Nevertheless, I blushed deeply the second my clothes fell down into my lap. The breeze felt warm against my bare skin, and that was some small comfort – not much, but something. I turned around to face Jace, crossing my arms in front of me. When I met his ever-so-slightly-widened blue eyes, I put on my most immovable scowl.

_Oh, damn. _I had nearly forgotten that Jace had taken off his shirt too, and it was all I could do to keep my gaze at eye level. I swallowed. _Damn, damn, damn. This is not fair._

"So." I cleared my throat ceremoniously then, hoping that if I kept a controlled enough tone of voice, he wouldn't get suspicious. "To business. And our first order is – Where are we?"

Jace wore an expression of great amusement as he regarded me, to my chagrin. _I just can't win, can I? _"Well," he said, folding his arms behind his head as he arched his back and stretched. His eyes clenched shut and his brow furrowed, but then a moment later he exhaled, and let both of his arms – etherium and flesh alike – drop back into his lap. I noticed, with some interest, that it really was his _whole_ arm that was metal now – the etherium wound its way from shoulder to fingertip in a delicate, almost artistic overlay. "We're definitely in Lorwyn now, I can tell you that."

I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes. "I figured as much." The two of us were sitting on the bank of a wide river, and surrounded on nearly all sides by tightly-knit groves of trees. A layer of leaves coated the sun-dappled floor beneath us, and here and there I could see clusters of flowers – red and blue and orange and gold, large and small, and all of them in full bloom. It was a pretty place. Peaceful, too. It matched the description Venser had given me during our discussion of other planes some time ago while I was recovering, so I figured that even without Jace here, I would have been able to make an educated guess as to my whereabouts. _I've got to start learning about these places __**sometime**__, after all._

At my remark Jace, unlike me, _did_ roll his eyes. "Did you, now. I see." He wrung dry the shock of hair that hung into his face, and flicked the water away where it dripped onto his wrist. "Well, I'm assuming what you _really _want to know is where we are in comparison to where Doran is, am I right?"

I nodded. I had begun to busy myself unfolding Jace's and my clothes, and then laying them out in the sun to dry. I didn't think it would take too long. It was a warm day, and direct sunlight in combination with that and the breeze would make the process a surefire thing. I could already feel the water evaporating from my skin and hair, besides – it was a simple, yet uncannily pleasant sensation. "Yeah. I'm eager to get moving, to be honest."

Jace didn't respond for a moment. When I finally finished my task and looked up, though, I found him smiling at me. His head was tilted to the side just a little. "Really?" His tone of voice – casual and teasing – took me a bit by surprise. _Since when have we been close enough for him to sound like that? _"I would think you'd want to stay here awhile, since it's such a pleasant little place. In the middle of a forest, no less!"

Despite myself, I flashed him a crooked grin. "Well, I _do _like forests – You've got me there. And this place _is_ pretty." I plucked at a little acorn lying on the ground near my leg and twirled it idly by the stem, between my fingers. "But no. Really, I want to get this done. I'm _excited_. This could be exactly what I need to…" I shrugged, "…figure this whole 'planeswalker' thing out, you know?"

Jace hesitated, then allowed himself a small smile. "Mm. Yeah. I do." He sighed, flicking his wrists again in a gesture that he usually performed to shove back his sleeves. "I guess I'll get us started, then, if you don't mind." Before I could ask him what he intended to do, he held his left hand out in front of him, and wisps of pale blue light began to coalesce between his fingers. Barely a moment passed before the aether around his hand began to distort, and then it parted to allow a figure through – which came to rest, neatly, on the palm of his hand. It was a miniature winged woman, her skin the same color as the blue light. Her pretty little translucent wings fluttered as she looked up at Jace obediently, and my jaw dropped open. I found myself staring at her in wonderment.

"Go find Doran," he said simply. "You remember who that is, right?"

The woman's head bobbed. She bowed at the waist before taking flight, and then sped off into the trees without any further ado. Her tiny form was gone before I could even blink.

There was a pause, and then I shook my head in disbelief. "What…_was_ that?" I asked. I had never seen someone so small before, let alone someone so small who possessed _wings_, too. I was remarkably curious.

Jace laughed lightly. "She's a cloud sprite. One of my most useful little summons." Suddenly, he cocked an eyebrow at me, and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "Are you saying you've never seen a faerie before, Rana?"

I shook my head. "Can't say I have."

Jace smiled. When his gaze met mine, I felt my breath catch in my throat at the way his eyes just…gleamed.

"Well then," he said, cheerily, "you're in for a fun trip."

* * *

><p>Several hours later, Jace and I were nearly there. <em>Nearly<em>. Or so said the cloud sprite, in her language of gestures and soft sounds that only Jace seemed to understand. For the life of me, I couldn't figure it the hells out.

"She says we're going to be entering treefolk territory in about a quarter of a mile," he panted, stumbling over a large tree root as he made his way through the undergrowth. For someone as fit as he seemed, he was rather clumsy when it came to this. "I had her warn Doran and his people that I'm coming, so they won't attack us on sight. Hopefully."

I snorted. I was a good ten paces ahead of the mage, having been used to traversing cluttered forest floors – and canopies – for my entire life. I leapt over a fallen branch without pause, and turned back to look at Jace as I walked briskly ahead. "_Hopefully_? What, so if they happen to be having a bad day, then we're screwed?"

Jace chuckled ruefully. In truth, it came out more like a wheeze. "Something like that."

I groaned, and ducked beneath an overhanging vine that had threatened to smack me right in the neck had I not been looking. "Wonderful. Sounds just typical for our luck."

Jace swore loudly in time with the sound of ripping cloth, and I turned again to see the edge of his cloak snagged on some bracken. I sighed, and stopped to double back and help him out.

"You're going to break the poor bush," I chided, bending down to free the cloth. I trusted my deft hands far more than I did his, and so I swatted them away when he tried to reach down and help. "I told you it wasn't a good idea to put this thing back on, didn't I?"

The mage grunted. "Nowhere else I could put it…"

In no time flat, both the cloak and bush were safely extricated from one another's grasp. "There." I stood up, brushing my hands together to remove the dirt that had coated his hem. When we were at eye level, I had to restrain myself from throwing Jace my most self-satisfied smirk. "Next time, _listen_ to me before you go off traipsing into the heart of the forest. Fair deal?"

"Fine," he grumbled, though I could see a hint of a smile twitching the corners of his lips. "Whatever you say, o mistress of the woods…"

"Hmmm…nice title." I resumed my previous pace, quickly gaining distance on Jace as he trudged along even slower than before. I had to raise my voice to be heard now, though it still kept its playful tone. "A little overdramatic, but I could get used to it. Just don't call me it in public, though, okay? I would hate to sound like I think too highly of myse-Ooof!"

For once, I had been too distracted by my banter to pay attention to what was in front of me. When I opened my eyes and looked, my heartbeat briefly stilled in my chest – for standing right in front of me, hardly having backed a foot away, was…_spirits_, it was one of the trees I'd summoned into battle against Alanor! _How can this be possible? _It was one of the leaf-bearded twins, the one that carried the broadsword. His brother stood a short distance behind him, the other trees all around them somehow bending and shifting to make room for their bulk without breaking. I stared in awe.

"You," the great being rumbled, his voice sounding both like the splitting of the earth, and like every sound in a thunderstorm melded. One leaf-eyebrow raised as he peered down at me, bark creaking. "I do not know you, and yet you are familiar. How is this so?"

I gulped. I wasn't quite sure how to explain this – in truth, I wasn't even sure how it was possible in the first place. Mostly it just…happened. "I…I've used my magic to summon a replica of you to fight for me in battle. I don't know how it works, but-"

"Ah," the tree said, not deigning to let me finish. "You are a mage. I understand now. You need not explain." He turned his face from me without sparing so much as another glance, and let his beady eyes come to rest on Jace. "You are Jace Beleren, are you not?"

Jace nodded. If he was as awestruck or as suddenly nervous as I was, he sure as hells wasn't showing it. "I am."

From behind the tree, his partner took an earth-shaking step forward. As his foot came crashing down on the forest floor with the force of a hedron tumbling from the sky, I cringed. The sound vibrated its way up my legs, sending what felt like every bone in my body quivering. _Have they been waiting here this whole time? There's no way we couldn't have heard them moving before…_

"We have been instructed to take the two of you to Lord Doran at once," the second tree said. His voice was just as jarring as his partner's, though softer by only a note. "We shall carry you. It will make the remainder of the journey far swifter than simply traveling on foot."

Again, Jace nodded. He wore his business face now, and so of course he appeared utterly unflappable. _Typical. _"Of course," he said, tone pleasant. "I thank you for your kind offer."

Without warning, I felt something slide beneath my feet even as my body was lifted into the air, and I let out a yelp. The world was rushing by too fast for me to see – at least for a moment – and the sight, along with the deafening creaking that made my eardrums throb, set me off balance and tumbling onto my rear. However, when I did, I felt the familiar touch of worn wood beneath me – and when I had composed myself enough to take in my surroundings again, I realized that the tree with the broadsword was now holding me up in the palm of his hand, as Jace had held the tiny cloud sprite. I wondered vaguely where the little thing was before remembering how she had perched herself on Jace's shoulder. I blinked back my dizziness then, so I could have room to marvel.

"I can sense your connection to the land, little one," my carrier said, startling me into looking up and meeting his unfathomably deep black eye. _Yellow pupils_, I noticed. I was reminded of Sorin, and I shivered. That, combined with that fact that he had begun moving, made it hard for me to hold my gaze where it was."You are an odd one. You are similar to a human, but you have the ears of an elf. Yet, you have no horns. What are you?"

Sparing a glance out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jace riding seated on the palm of the other tree, eyes closed and head bowed. The cloud sprite sat in her position on his shoulder, similarly postured. _What is he doing?_

"I _am_ an elf," I answered, at once returning my eyes and my attention to where they belonged. I would concern myself with Jace later. "Though I'm…a different kind. I'm not from here." I tilted my head a little as I pondered what the tree had said, and smiled. _Interesting. _"Where I'm from, elves don't have horns."

"Ah," the tree said. He continued his slow trail forward, through the forest as it bent over backward to clear a path for him. "So you are a world-walker, like Jace Beleren. Lord Doran has told us about your kind. You are, indeed, a rare breed. I am not surprised that he wishes to see you. "

_**Lord **__Doran_, I thought, feeling suddenly nervous. My heart stuttered. _I've never really spoken to anyone important outside my tribe– What in the hells am I supposed to do different? Do I bow? Do I flatter him? What? _

"Tell me, little one – What is your name?"

I jolted out of my reverie, shaking my head. I was still staring into the one eye of the tree that was facing in my direction, though I had clearly gone out of focus for a moment. Or maybe longer. "My name is Ranewen," I said, politely as I could. I would have bowed, had I been standing. "Ranewen of the Tajuru, from the plane of Zendikar."

The tree nodded – at least, as much as it could do. "Ranewen," it said, tasting the word on whatever passed for its tongue. "Ranewen. It is a pleasure to meet you then, Ranewen. I am Broadbark. My brother is Odum, and the two of us are Lord Doran's high guards." His tone somehow lightened, and in the span of an instant it became…almost teasing, oddly enough. I didn't know how to react. "You were wondering of such things, were you not?"

Indeed, I had been. I always felt uncomfortable not knowing someone's name, and it was no different when my conversation partner was a tree – or tree_folk_, rather. "I…was." For the first time I smiled, allowing a bit of my nervousness to wash away. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Broadbark."

"Likewise." Broadbark turned his head away from me, and placed his gaze forward once more. After several long minutes in silence – during which I simply stared at the forest around me, drinking in its beauty from such a high vantage point – he came to a sudden halt. I turned forward, and beside me, on Odum's hand, Jace looked up and did the same.

"We have arrived," Odum said, quietly.

Before us stood a small clearing, open at the top to the late afternoon sun's rays as they streamed down bright and hot. It was fringed in flowers and stands of heavily leaved bushes, and bare in the center save for one large, familiar figure – the sight of which set a lump forming in my throat, and forced my heart to beat faster.

"Lord Doran," the two guards intoned in reverent unison, as both of them swept into creaking bows at their waists. Somehow, they managed to keep their passenger-carrying arms held perfectly upright.

My rootbeard stood tall and proud, gazing first down on his subordinates and then up at Jace, and then, impossibly slowly, over to me. I clutched my hands into tight fists at my side.

"You," Doran said softly. His voice was as deep of a rumble as either Broadbark's or Odum's, but there was an undercurrent of strength in it that I could palpably feel – In fact, it seemed to resonate in me perfectly, harmonizing with the pulse of green mana that I held to dearly, unconsciously. Something in me flared when I looked at him. Suddenly I found myself struggling to breathe. "So it _is_ you, after all."

Jace and I exchanged glances – his open, mine hesitant – before we both turned back to Doran. Abruptly, I wanted to speak, so without regard to the consequences, I just…did.

"I never expected to meet you in person, Doran," I said. My voice suddenly went soft at the edges to match the great treefolk sage's tone. I shook my head. "You've done so much for me, and here I was thinking that you were some…strange figment of my imagination, some daydream gone wild the second I called upon mana." I smiled, slowly. "And yet, here you are."

The tree paused. During the length of that pause, he did not move.

"Yes," he whispered, finally, "here I am. And here you are, to claim my power once more."

My blood turned to ice. _Wait…does he know? How could he possibly-_

"I am connected to you," Doran interjected, as smoothly as if he had been reading my thoughts. I could only stare in stunned silence. "You call upon me with your will, and as such, your will calls out to me. I know more of your thoughts and feelings than you may guess, my dear young planeswalker."

I swallowed hard. I wanted more time to ponder this, to ask a million and one questions, but…

"Lord Doran," I said. I endeavored to keep my voice as steady and clear as I could. "If you know so much about me already, then do you have an answer to the question I planned to ask you by coming here?" I stared directly at him, my gaze unwavering. "Is there anything I can do, to convince you to agree?"

"I do…and there is." Doran waved his arm in a short motion, and in response Broadbark lowered his hand to set me gently on the ground. Beside us, Odum did the same with Jace. The mage hurried over to stand by my side, and flashed me a look – but it came and went too quickly for me to decipher with certainty. I thought I caught anxiety.

The tree waited until Jace and I were focused on him once more, and then haltingly, he nodded. The leaves crowning his head rustled as they were touched by a light breeze.

"If you wish for me to agree," he continued, "then you must fight me, here and now. You must do so alone, upon only your own power." Dark pools though they were, something in his eyes seemed to glitter as they bore into me. I swayed on the spot. "One way or another, this matter will be settled by sunset, should you accept. So what say you, Ranewen?"

There was a pause where I allowed myself to be surprised at the fact that he knew my name, but the moment quickly passed. Jace's hand on my shoulder steadied me – whether it was there in support or in concern, it didn't matter – and I took a single step forward, steeling my gaze. _Here goes nothing._

"Lord Doran," I said, firmly as I could, "I accept your challenge."


	23. Chapter 23

"Ungh!"

I landed on my back, limbs flailing. Pain seared through me as cloth ripped, enough to allow the hard ground to dig itself viciously into my skin.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jace flinch. He stood at the edge of the clearing between Odum and Broadbark, wreathed in a shroud of blue as he maintained both his visual illusions and his sound nullification barrier at once – meager though the latter was, at his own admittance. To avoid drawing his treefolk tribe's attention to the two errant planeswalker visitors, Doran had requested that the battle be sealed off from the rest of the forest. For whatever reason he felt the need to be cautious, and neither Jace nor I had seen any sensible reason to argue with him – so, without further ado, the mage had set to work. He half-focused his attention on watching the battle unfold, once he was confident enough that his illusions would stay.

I honestly hoped he liked watching a good solid beatdown, because that was the only word to describe what I was currently undergoing.

_Meh, __**beatdown**__'s a little harsh – More like a…uh…_

I rolled to my feet and leapt, dodging a brutal swipe of my trusted ally's bark-fists when they aimed themselves directly at my head. I was just a bit too slow, and the sting as I felt my scalp slice open sent me tumbling right back to earth. I yelped in pain.

_Nope, nevermind. Beatdown about covers it._

Spitting blood, I shoved myself to my knees. Doran had wasted no time in preparing his next attack while I was down, as now the aether was in the midst of rippling before him like a windblown pond. The tree gestured with his arms and shouted, and before I could blink there were suddenly _four _treefolk in front of me instead of one – great oaks all of them, with long vine-wands clasped in their humanlike fists. Despite the imminent danger, I couldn't help but feel a note of surprise.

_Doran can __**summon**__? _

I didn't have time to ponder the subject any further though, because the oaks were now letting out a unified war cry that sounded like the splitting of branches beneath lightning. Then they were charging, wands at the ready, and _damn it_, I noticed that the ends of the things were pointed. _Just what I need._

"You think that's gonna scare me off?" I shouted. It was hard to be heard over the din of three treefolk – oh, and now Doran too, _great_ – coming at me full speed on feet as large and heavy as boulders. Even so, I would rather go out with fighting words on my lips than screams of terror. I gritted my teeth, and siphoned black mana to me as I thrust my hands, palms out, in front of my face. I could feel a gust of wind at my back, and then my hair was whipping up around my head like a tempest – wisps of white against a growing backdrop of darkness.

"Too bad for _you_," I snarled, "that I've got too much on the line to just give up and go crawling back home to mommy!"

_Bad choice of words_, I realized, as my mind registered that I had neither a home nor a mommy to go crawling back _to_. My gut clenched. The air around me seemed to roar as it darkened even further, and I let the tide of raw power flood over me and wash away any scrap of emotion left.

"Back-the hells-_OFF_!"

I screamed, and there was a familiarly satisfying blast that rocked the entire clearing.

I could hear the summoned treefolk's rumbling, croaking screams too, as they were sucked without hope of resistance into my immense vortex. The damn thing eclipsed nearly every other instance of the spell I had cast before, and its tug was so strong that I could even feel it gnawing at _my _ankles – Whatever I had done to make it so big, I needed to do it again. _No._ I needed to learn how to do it on _command_, that was what I needed. All I could do now though was wait for it to collapse inward, so I could just be done with this fight and ask Doran if he could fulfill my favor for me. Surely it had drained him of as much power as it had drained me by mere proximity – I was getting so exhausted by now that my already-weak legs could barely hold me up…

But when the vortex did vanish, there was no one behind it. Well, Jace, of course, and Odum and Broadbark where they all stood at the edge of the clearing, but…no Doran. I whipped about in alarm.

_Where-_

Suddenly, a tremendous _crack _across the back of my head told me exactly _where_.

In an instant I felt all the mana drain out of me, to be replaced only with a dull, throbbing agony as I crumpled to the ground.

* * *

><p>"Stand back, Beleren – give her some breathing room. She is waking."<p>

I opened my eyes and blinked, and found myself staring directly up into both Jace's face and Doran's. I couldn't see Odum and Broadbark, but I could feel their presence just as easily as I would feel the position of my arm in a dark room – innate, like a part of me. The familiar taste of the mana about them relaxed me too, and I pushed myself into a sitting position. Surprisingly, everything felt…_good_. Whole. Not shattered into tiny little pieces, as I had expected.

"How long was I out?" I muttered. I turned to look at Jace, whose eyes flashed with clear relief.

"Just a minute or two," he said, and shrugged lightly. "Lord Doran gave you a concussion with that last hit, but your injuries weren't anything I couldn't fix."

I smiled and nodded. "Thanks." Truthfully, I _was_ grateful, but at the moment I had more important business to attend to first than lauding thanks upon someone who likely didn't need more of an ego boost than he already had. I was sure that out of all people, _Jace_ would understand. Slowly, I turned to look up at the majestic rootbeard that towered over me – even bent at the waist as he was, he dwarfed me quatrefold. I knew he was tall, but I only really got an accurate sense of his scale by being this close. Battle hadn't counted. I had been too intent on not getting my ass kicked back then to notice such trivial things as comparative height…_not like it worked, but hey._

Chuckling, I shook my head. My fingers absently reached up to brush the wound on my scalp, and found only smooth skin. "Guess that's what I get for being cocky, huh?"

Doran let out a rumble of amusement. His face made no visible motion to accompany the sound – which for some reason unsettled me a little – but nevertheless, his tone was warm. "Yes, I suppose you could call it that." One of his great branched fingertips reached down to stroke the side of my face, which gave me a start. "Still, it is significantly better than giving up. Regardless of the mistakes you made, you fought to the end without fear. That is an honorable defeat, dear Ranewen. You should be proud to learn from such a thing."

The touch of his branch was surprisingly warm, and the green mana that Doran positively bathed in was a great comfort to both body and soul – or, well, _whatever_ part of me it was that sustained itself on mana. I closed my eyes and smiled. "You're sure, Lord Doran? That was an embarrassingly short battle. I think I only got in two hits on you, if that."

The treefolk rumble-laughed again. "That is two hits better than plenty of other people have managed, my dear. So, yes. I am sure."

For a moment I hesitated – and then, finally, I exhaled and allowed my eyes to slide open. Jace still knelt at my side, his own eyes wide and attentive, and as my thoughts drifted I felt the cool touch of his mana signature. Before, I had only really ever felt the strength of whatever types of mana I used personally – green, black, and white, with green by far being the most noticeable – but lately I had been able to feel much more than that. I had felt Chandra's fiery heat when she hugged me goodbye back in the Consortium compound, and then Venser's gentle combination of white and blue throughout the entirety of my healing process – an aura that put me as at ease as if I had never been injured, and soothed my wounds better than any balm. Now, there was Jace's, too. His was at once cold and electric, though altogether refreshing whenever it chanced upon me. The best way I could think to describe it was to liken it to the sensation of jumping straight into icy water on a hot day.

"Lord Doran," I said softly, meeting his gaze, "I understand that I lost. Thank you anyway, though. …For giving me your time. You really didn't need to."

There was a moment of silence, broken only by the familiar sound of wind between the canopies of the trees above.

"When," Doran returned, after a time, "did I say anything about denying you a reward for your efforts?"

My gaze snapped to attention right in unison with Jace's. I felt my heart begin to drum hard against my ribcage.

"But Lord Doran." I desperately didn't want to protest, and instead to just take this stroke of luck and run with it, but _of course_ my mouth wouldn't let me. As per usual, I opened it too wide and babbled on inanely. "Lord Doran, you…you can't mean that you want to…_reward_ me? I _lost_."

The tree barely suppressed a chuckle. "With _honor_," he said simply, "as I told you before. Your strength of will is far more important to me than the strength of your physical body, and you have proven yourself perfectly well to me today." He nodded – or at least, so much as a treefolk could manage. "Truly, I need no more from you than that."

Had I jumped for joy as I wanted to, I was sure that I would've flown up and away. "Thank you, Lord Doran." I beamed, reaching up to take hold of the branch that still caressed my face so I could cradle it. It might not have been the most socially appropriate thing to do at the moment, but I honestly couldn't give less of a damn. "_Thank you_." I didn't know what else to say. Perhaps I didn't _need_ to say anything.

With a loud creak that came out more like a groan, Doran stood up straight and gently disentangled himself from my grip. "I have council that I must hold with my tribe this evening, but we shall discuss terms on the morrow. Would this arrangement be fair to you, Ranewen of the Tajuru, from the plane of Zendikar?"

I blinked back surprise at the title. Then, though, I remembered to have introduced myself to Broadbark as such, and I laughed out loud.

"Yes, Lord Doran. That arrangement would be more than fair."

* * *

><p>The sun was finally beginning to dip beneath what horizon I could see between the trees when Jace and I finished pitching our tent. It had taken us a good hour's walk to get here – <em>here <em>being a quiet nook beside a freshwater spring where Jace had spent some time on his previous visits to Lorwyn – and what felt like ten more trying to get the damn contraption set up. More than once, I had wished Venser were here. Neither Jace nor I seemed to be competent when it came to working with our hands.

The mage collapsed onto his knees in front of the entrance now, letting out a beleaguered sigh. "I swear, I'm an idiot for not asking Doran if we could stay with his tribe for the evening."

I was busy tending to the fire we had miraculously managed to get started, so I only looked up at him for a second. "We would've had to set up the tent there too, y'know." I blew on the tiny flame, twice, in an attempt to get it going. Little success. "And besides, I'm sure he'd have asked if we wanted to stay, had we been allowed. They've probably got important treefolk business to discuss at the council or something. No outsiders."

"Yeah. You're probably right."

Reaching into my satchel, I threw a handful of overdried herbs on the fire to serve as kindling. To my delight, the flames did leap up higher, and now they gave off a pleasantly spicy sent to boot. "At least your little cloud sprite's been keeping an eye on things for us over there. She said she'd take us straight to them tomorrow, right?"

"Mm."

We passed the next few minutes in silence until I managed to get the fire burning at a decent height, and then finally I stood up to brush the ash and dirt off of my leggings. The flames had eaten right through my herbs, and now we were starting to run a little low on kindling. "I'm going to check around for some more fuel for the fire, okay? I'll be back in a minute."

Jace looked up from the tent pole he was fixing – it must have collapsed again, when I wasn't looking – and tilted his head a little as he regarded me. "Don't go too far, Rana." His put down the peg in his hand, and his eyes softened in concern. I stopped. "I know you know how to handle yourself in the woods better than I do, but this isn't Zendikar. There's all kinds of things out there you haven't seen." He chuckled, running a hand through his messy hair. He'd had his hood down the entire time we'd been in Lorwyn, and it was…nice, to see him so relaxed. "Hells, _I _probably haven't seen half of them."

I smiled warmly. "Well, thanks for the advice, Jace, but I think I'll be fine. I'll make sure to keep an eye out, though." I turned before I could allow a blush to creep across my cheeks from the way he watched me go, and I made my way across to the other side of our little campsite, where a stand of brush separated the cleared space from the forest proper.

The second my body rustled into the bracken, though, I heard the sharp sound of something whizzing past my ear.

My hunter's instincts kicked in without pause and I swiftly dropped to a crouch, hand shooting to the knife at my belt. I knew it wouldn't do me any good in comparison to my magic, but the worn leather handle felt good in my grip. It cleared my head, focused my attention. Always had. _Always will._

"Jace!" I cried. I growled, spinning toward the direction the arrow had come from. "Get down, we're getting shot at!"

"Elves!" He shouted back. I was too concerned with where our attackers might be than with looking for him, so long as he sounded fine. "_Fuck_, Rana, we're right in the middle of their hunting grounds!"

Jace's colorful swear made me nervous, but what made me even _more_ nervous then was the way his voice quavered at the edges. This was _not _going to be good.

And even without knowing about the elves of this new plane, I knew, as a rule, exactly what it meant to trespass on a clan's hunting grounds as an outlander – in most cases, a quick death.

I caught a flash of delicately curving horns as someone moved from branch to branch in the tree above me, lightning-fast. Someone else moved too in the tree beyond them, and then another figure, and another – until then, finally, my pricked ears caught exactly what they were looking for. The unmistakable twang of a bowstring being drawn tight, just above and diagonal to the large tree with the lump on its trunk. Our attackers had been moving into a new position upon missing their first shot, and now they – however many _they _happened to be – were preparing again to fire.

I was about to scale the tree ahead of me and go toe to toe with them in my own element, had a sudden flash of blue from behind me not overwhelmed the clearing.

I turned briefly, just in time to see two large drakes bursting forth from a tear in the aether at Jace's command. The mage stood in front of the entrance to the tent still, eyes glowing as blue and as bright as the scales on his beasts. The two creatures took to the air with ear-splitting roars when he lifted a hand, and streamed directly toward the trees above my head, opening their mouths to spew out clouds of impossibly hot steam. I saw blurs of movement as a few of the elves managed to dodge in the nick of time, just barely avoiding being incinerated like everything else caught up in the blast. I stared in awe for a moment. I couldn't help myself.

I was rewarded for that distraction, however, with an arrow that I just barely managed to dodge. It set me off balance enough to tumble backwards – and as luck would have it, I landed right in the rocky spring. The back of my thigh gashed itself across a particularly jagged edge, tearing a path straight through to muscle. I bit my tongue to keep from letting out a howl. It only partially worked.

"Rana!" Even over the screeching and the sizzling that continued to go on above us, I could hear the wild panic in Jace's voice. He was at my side faster than I thought he could move, bending down to lift my body gingerly back onto the grass. I winced. No one had dared fire another arrow after that second one just now– the drakes were catching onto their movements too fast for that, and had probably cleared a good majority of them out, anyway. We were safe for the moment.

"Damn it," he hissed, as he supported my upper half with one arm. His eyes narrowed. "Dammit, Rana, that arrow didn't hit you, did it? Please tell me it didn't. They're tipped with moonglove extract – If it broke the skin, you'll-"

"Please," I groaned. I closed my eyes against the throbbing burn in my thigh, which mingled with the already persistent ache of my healing leg to make me so lightheaded that I couldn't focus. "No talk of morbid stuff. I think I'm gonna throw up."

The sounds of the drakes faded away to a much quieter clamor behind us, and Jace's expression relaxed a little as he looked at me. His eyes were still scanning my body rapidly, up and down, but he didn't seem to be finding what he had dreaded. "So it…_didn't_ hit you, then?"

I shook my head. My stomach was heaving, so talking would probably be a dangerous option at this point.

He sighed out loud with relief, and scooped me up into his arms. He must have noticed the blood staining the rocks and pooling beneath my leg, because he took care not to put his hand anywhere close to the wound, choosing instead to hold me beneath the knees.

"I think the drakes chased them off," he said quietly, as he hurried us both toward the tent. "The second they get killed, I'll know. When that happens, I'll just summon two more to keep watch."

Honestly, I didn't give a damn what Jace did about the damn drakes or the damn elves so long as he _fixed my damn leg_ before I vomited all over us both. That was, obviously, _not_ my ideal course of action.

When he had ducked through the entrance, Jace gently laid me down onto the bedroll I had set up, and laced the tent flaps shut before turning back to me. He looked concerned still, but there was no denying the utter relief in his face compared to a few moments earlier. I supposed I understood – being injured and bleeding and in gut-wrenching agony was far preferable to being injured and subsequently dying from a toxin, by a long shot. It was a pretty relatable concept.

I closed my eyes. _Oh, that's much better._

I could feel Jace's gloved etherium hand beneath my knee, lifting up my leg so that he could see the injury, and then I felt the warmth of his left hand as it ghosted across my thigh. White mana flared hot at the fingertips.

Even in the midst of all my pain, my body somehow was cognizant enough to make my cheeks flush.

He held his grasp where it was for a moment, examining the wound – and then, without further pretense, he just cupped his entire hand over it to let the magic seep into me. I felt it move through my skin to my muscle to places even deeper, and all the way down to my ailing stomach as I breathed in the sweet heady scent of the mana. I probably imagined that healing magic smelling like anything, to be honest, but it still made my nose tingle. That had to count for something.

A moment passed in silence as the spell finished its work, and the remaining mana dissipated to rejoin the aether. Neither of us spoke. I opened my eyes, slowly, and lifted my gaze to look at Jace.

When I saw that his hands still hadn't let go of my leg, my heart nearly stopped beating outright.

The mage's eyes met mine. Slowly – almost torturously so – he fixed me with a languid smile. He didn't seem to be concerned with the fact that I was staring at him wide-eyed and almost certainly openmouthed, or that my face was likely, by now, the color of Chandra's flaming hair – instead, he just lowered my leg ever-so-delicately to the ground. I gaped.

"Feel better?"

Swallowing, I nodded. When I managed to find the right words to speak, my voice came out faint.

"Yeah. Uh, completely. …Thanks, Jace."

He smiled again, this time in a cheerful manner that I was more used to seeing. "You're welcome." He flopped back onto his own bedroll then with a huff, and rolled over onto his side so that he was facing me. "You had me really worried, for a second there. If you had gotten any of that moonglove extract in you, you'd have been a goner. No questions about it."

I hadn't realized until that moment just how close our bedrolls were to one another. _Shit._

"Uh…good thing I have pretty good reflexes then, huh?"

Jace laughed softly at that, and I couldn't help but smile back when I saw the mirth in his eyes. For one brief second, I was able to push back my nerves. Just a little.

"I guess so. I wouldn't have expected it out of you, but it looks like you proved me wrong today."

"What's _that _supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing."

I scowled, trying to make myself look indignant at his teasing. It wasn't an easy task, what with this cramped tent forcing us to lie close to one another if we wanted to lie down at all. The proximity had summoned my blush back to my face – with a vengeance, no less. _Wonderful._

Jace must have seen it, too – of course he would, it was right damn _there_ in front of his nose! – because suddenly, he was smiling at me in the most captivating way, and then something in his gaze just…changed…

There was a faint rustling as he shifted, and then before I could react his lips were on mine.

My eyes shot wide. My entire body went rigid at that small, simple contact, and I found myself utterly unable to respond. I could feel my heartbeat going mad in my ears.

_This isn't really happening. I must've passed out from the pain in my leg or something, and now I'm dreaming. _

…_Yeah. That has to be it._

There was one achingly long moment where I was conscious of the pressure of his lips – and then, as abruptly as it had begun, the kiss ended. Jace pulled away, enough so that his eyes were able to find mine. At first they held a hint of confusion, but then when he saw what must have been the shock in my own, he relaxed. A slow smile spread across his face.

"I'm, ah…guessing you weren't expecting that?"

I shook my head. My previous blush had intensified itself tenfold, heating my face to the point where I wondered if spontaneous combustion were actually possible.

Jace's smile widened, and his left hand lifted to brush across my cheek. "Well then." And without any further pause he was kissing me again, eyes closed, hair falling across his forehead to frame his face in rich dark brown. I found myself suddenly powerless. The great majority of my body fell limp as a rag doll, and my mind wiped itself blank to be left only with thoughts of _this is happening this is happening I can't believe it this is actually happening_. There was nothing else I could do. Finally, I just gave in and kissed him back.

His lips were warm and yielding against mine, and my own parted right as his arms encircled me and pulled me close. I could feel his hair now, tickling where it brushed my cheeks. I had the absurd urge to laugh.

Whether it was from sheer emotion or lack of air, I couldn't tell – but either way, I soon found myself dizzy as our kiss heated, and as his tongue found mine to begin a dance of vying for dominance. How long had it been since I'd been kissed this way? Or at all? _Too long_, I thought, and I let Jace roll me over and press my back down into the bedroll. He hovered over me, supporting his weight with his etherium arm while the other tangled in my hair.

"Mm…" A quiet sound escaped my throat before I could stop it, and almost instantly I felt his muscles tense. His eyes opened to bore into me – an inescapable, clear cerulean, so much so that I found myself suddenly entranced. It was impossible how damn _blue_ those things were.

I let out a little gasp as his mouth left mine to trail a pathway across the curve of my jaw, and then ever so slowly down to my neck. My arms reached up and wrapped around him. I felt teeth graze skin, and I shivered. I felt his tongue lightly trace the line of my collarbone, and my back arched. I groaned. He bit down, and my breath escaped in a low hiss.

"Jace…" I was too caught up in the physical sensations rocketing through me to be entirely aware at the moment, so by the time I noticed his wandering hand it was thoroughly beneath my shirt, having skated up my side all the way to my breast band. The blush that had lingered in my cheeks deepened. _Wait, _I wanted to say as my heart picked up tempo, _hold on_, but his lips had conveniently lifted to recapture mine. I wiggled a little in his grasp, hoping to draw his attention.

Much to my dismay, though, he took my movements as a sign of encouragement.

Deft fingers worked at the small metal catch, and in barely an instant the thing was free, pooling as loose strips of cloth at my back. My skin seared wherever his fingertips touched as they made their way back down to my stomach, especially when they circled the edge of my bare breasts in the process.

"Jace," I said again, though of course it came out uselessly muffled. I untangled my arms from around him, and pushed firmly against his chest. "Hold on…stop. Mmmph. Hey. Heywaitaminute-" None of those words made it out of my mouth comprehensibly, and instead they sounded more than anything like noises of pleasure. _Shit. This isn't helping._

His eyes shifted to meet my gaze then as his hand fisted in the bottom of my shirt – and with a darkness in their depths that I could only describe as hunger, he began to lift it up. The coil in the bottom of my abdomen wound tighter. Part of me just wanted to say _fuck it _upon seeing that look, to just sit back and shut up and let this happen, and indeed I did hesitate for a moment. I was a grown woman, after all. I could do whatever the hells I wanted. This wasn't wrong.

_I know, but I just…_

The cloth was featherlight against my skin, and I shivered as it was drawn away to expose my ribcage to the cool air. Jace kept on kissing me all the while, urgently.

_I can't…_

"HEY!"

Finally – though reluctantly – I broke free of Jace's arms with one hard shove, and rolled over onto my side. I yanked my shirt back down into place as quickly as I could. The breast band would have to wait.

"Slow…slow down," I breathed. I hadn't realized I was panting until just this moment, and for whatever reason that knowledge flustered me enough to make my ears burn. I crossed my arms tightly over my chest. My breath came out in a shaky exhale. "You're going too fast."

When my words were met with no response, I looked up – and then when I found Jace's eyes upon doing so, I gave a start. The ardor in them hadn't just cooled, but frozen over entirely. His face had fallen enough, too, so that he now looked completely abashed.

"I…" He couldn't seem to find the right words to say, so he just sighed and shook his head. "…Ah, shit."

"Hey." I noticed that Jace's cheeks were now enveloped in a blush as well, but I only caught it for the half-second he remained facing me before he laid himself down on his own bedroll, and turned his back to me. His left hand reached up to bunch in his hair.

"Jace," I said, scooting closer to him. Tentatively, I put one hand on his shoulder. "Really, it's fine. I just…I didn't want to-"

"No, Rana," he sighed, and I was taken aback by the irritation in his voice. My words died right away in my throat. "You don't have to explain it to me. It's my fault – I was being too aggressive. I'm sorry."

I was about to open my mouth to argue, to push hard enough to convince him that I wasn't going to start throwing around blame or holding this silly little misunderstanding against him – but to my utmost surprise, something stopped me. A face, familiar and yet thoroughly unexpected in this moment, made its way to the forefront of my mind. Something twisted in my chest. I closed my mouth.

"Just forget about it, Rana. Go to sleep. You need your rest after today."

Even though I knew he couldn't see me, I…_damn it all_, I nodded. Swallowing back the lump in my throat, I laid down on my own bedroll, and pulled the blanket up tight beneath my chin. The same face from before nearly swam in front of my vision, and no amount of blinking could chase away the guileless warmth of its smile.

_Get your act together, dammit_, I thought, as I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for sleep to claim me.

It took a great while. As I finally slipped into dreams, though, I realized that in the state of half-awareness I had fallen into, I could still feel the lingering heat of Jace's touch – burned like iron brands into my skin.

With his taste still so completely _him_ on my lips, I drifted off.

* * *

><p>When I awoke hours later, I instantly <em>knew<em> that something was wrong.

It was pitch dark in the tent at first, but as my body lurched with an unexpected surge of adrenaline, everything seemed to light up. Not supernaturally, of course – I just was suddenly able to see in the otherwise-dim moonlight with a remarkable clarity.

Heart pounding, I rolled onto my side and let my eyes fall on Jace. He looked fine enough, to my relief – I could see his form, rising and falling gently in the breath pattern of sleep, with all of his limbs and other vital parts intact. Or so it seemed. Details were lost to me, but at least there were lumps beneath his blanket wherever they belonged.

Still though, the uneasy feeling persisted.

And in perfect honesty, it had nothing to do with the awkwardness of our goodnight, or the way I still couldn't get that damn face out of my head – even now, apparently.

Swallowing hard, I scooted closer to the mage and shook him by the shoulder. He didn't so much as stir. I tried again, more forcefully, this time putting both hands to use in the effort.

"Jace," I hissed. "Jace, wake up."

No response. My pulse had picked up to a canter by now, and I was starting to feel a little dizzy.

"_Jace_." I sat up and shook him roughly, urgently, so hard that his hair tumbled into his face. "Come on, seriously. This isn't funny. _Wake up_." But his only response was to fall limply onto his back, head and one arm lolling across my knee. I gave a start. His face stared up at me through closed eyes with an expression of utter, immovable calm, save for the occasional twitch of his mouth, and I might have blushed – had I not been on the cusp of heart failure, perhaps.

"'E ent gonna answer yeh, girl."

There it was. The heart failure. For a brief moment my world went black at the edges as I registered my panic, and then slowly I turned around to face the entrance of the tent.

In the swathe of moonlight that cut directly across the opening flaps – which still hung shut, their laces tied tight – I could see the outline of an enormous armored shadow. It was surrounded by dozens of others, their as-yet-unseen forms coming in every nightmarish shape and size you could imagine – and worst of all, there were _noises _now. Low growls, and gurgles, and what almost sounded like moans, and..._oh spirits, I'm screwed. _

_No, I'm beyond screwed. I think I'm fucked this time._

"'E's under my control now, so I suggest yeh do what I say if'n yeh want ta…keep 'im from harm, less jus' say." The voice was deep and masculine, gruff, and grating as nails on ice. I shuddered. I wanted to throw my guts up from sheer fright, but that was something I was going to have to keep under some semblance of control.

I stole a glance down at Jace, who still appeared to be sleeping peacefully as I'd even seen him – his eyelids fluttered as I watched, even – and then I looked back up toward the shadows. Almost unconsciously, one of my hands slid beneath the back of his head, to support him as he lay in that same awkward position across my lap. "And just who are you?" I asked. It was all I could do to try and keep my voice brave. It still quavered, but at least it was understandable.

I could almost _hear_ the wicked smile in response, and my blood chilled the instant the stranger's words met my ears.

"Why dontcha step outside, Miss Ranewen, 'n' we'll have a li'l…chat."


	24. Chapter 24

When I stood up straight, I felt my heart thud to a halt in my chest.

It was certainly a comforting reassurance to know that the figure in front of me – as large and imposing as his shadow had been in the moonlight, on the tent flaps – was smaller in stature than I, but still…that wasn't much.

First, he was stockier than any man I could remember seeing, with armor as thick and black as night, and spiked in places where it was almost impractical to have such adornments.

And second, he had surrounded our tent on all sides with a menagerie of…horrifying _things_.

I was grateful that the scattered moonlight only partially revealed their forms, but from what furtive glances I did catch, I was terrified enough – I saw great slavering beasts, hunched over on all fours with their fangs dripping; strangely-shaped abominations whose multifarious eyes glittered in the dark like gems, and whose limbs seemed to have no beginning or end; and tall, humanlike figures, reeking of rot as they stood silently in the shadows. I thought I saw scraps of tissue and muscle dangling from the arms of the latter, but I didn't look overlong. That would _not_ have been a wise idea. What I did instead was gulp, and turn slowly to face the intruder in front of me.

My body shook. I was about to faint right then and there from sheer fright, but well…I had no other choice.

"Wh-who are you…?"

The dwarfed figure shifted, and the plates of his armor clanked together heavily as he did. When he moved, I could see the great silver axe on his back, glinting as it caught a lick of moonlight.

"Names don' matter, lass. Yeh don' need ta know."

My eyes narrowed at the dismissive tone of his voice. Unbidden, I felt my hands ball into fists at my sides. "Yes, they _do_ matter. You know mine. I don't know yours. We're not on equal terms."

The man shifted again. I couldn't see his eyes between the slits in his helmet, but I could almost _feel _the way they were squinting at me – taking me in, like a wolf sizing up the best way to devour its kill. It took effort to keep myself from letting out a squeak.

"Hmmmph…fair enough. Yer a spitfire, entcha?"

I didn't know what to say to that – or what I was _supposed_ to say to that, even – so I just…waited. I stared the man square in his helmeted face, my own eyes narrowed in determination, and waited.

Finally, with an irritated sigh and a grunt, he gave in. "Kelmor. Name's Kelmor, lass, an' I'm the General o' Death. Mighta 'eard o' me afore, if yeh'v been payin' attention 'n all yer trips cross the Blin' 'Ternities."

_General of Death._ My heart skipped a beat at that. _I remember Jace talking about him, back in Ravnica… _

"I _have_ heard of you," I said. It wasn't easy, but I forced my voice to sound as cool as I could manage. I folded my shaking arms across my chest, too, covering the swell of my breasts from sight. "But…not as much as I would like, I'm afraid. You should…ah…" I hesitated. Nervously, I reached up with one arm to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear, "…you should tell me why you're here, Kelmor. Since I personally have no idea."

"None at all?" Kelmor's booming voice resounded against the trees against the clearing, so loudly that it was a marvel Jace hadn't woken up yet. _Oh…wait. He __**can't **__wake up. That's right._

I shook my head. I hadn't a single clue how I was staying so put together right now, but it was a source of great amazement for me – Perhaps it was because I knew Jace was in danger, and wanted to be the one to protect _him_, for once? Hells, I didn't know.

"Well," Kelmor continued, after a brief pause, "I'm 'ere askin' for yer 'elp. You an' boyo in there both."

I gave a start. Now _that_ I hadn't been expecting.

_And isn't that supposed to be __**my**__ line?_

"You…" I hesitated, trying to gather my words. "You want…help?" My brow furrowed in confusion then when I found nothing clever to say, knitting itself closely overtop my eyes. "With what?"

"Restorin' this place ta the way it's s'posed ta be, tha's what."

_Wait…huh? _"I'm not sure I understand you."

Kelmor snorted, and shrugged his shoulders hard enough for his pauldrons to scrape together. I winced at the sound. "What, yeh dunno 'bout 'ow Lorwyn works? 'Bout the way day 'n' night happens round 'ere tha's so differn' from other places?"

I shook my head, slowly. Jace had neglected to mention the topic to me before we left, and suddenly I felt a hint of curiosity bubbling up in my chest. "Well…No. I can't say I do."

The armored man laughed outright now. The sound was hearty, coming from deep in his chest to rumble like thunder out of his throat, and it shook his entire form. He rested his fists against his hips and leaned forward. "Well then, lemme explain for yeh, real simple-like – The plane used ta be divided up inta two parts: Lorwyn durin' the day, 'n' Shadowmoor durin' the night. But days lasted fer 'undreds o' years, and nights too. They only switched when th'Aurora came. When they did switch, people changed inta differn' versions o' themselves, too – But all tha' ended when some elf lass named Maralen came along, 'n' tried ta make day 'n' night here like it is errywhere else. 'S'not good fer people to always be switchin' back 'n' forth. Only a few people don't – Like us planeswalkers, fer instance, 'n' yer good tree friend Doran back there."

Despite my fascination with the topic at hand, the sound of Doran's name instantly broke me out of my contemplative reverie. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. "What do you know about Doran?"

Kelmor shrugged. "Plenty, lass. 'E 'n' I go way back, 'ere. 'Ells, I met with 'im 'n' his tribe before sundown, 'n fact. They've all agreed ta pledge their support to me in what I'm 'bout to do."

_So __**that's **__why he left. _I stole a quick glance at the grotesque crowd on all sides, but then immediately regretted the action. When I turned back to Kelmor, it was with a shiver. "Well, what is it? And why does it involve us?" I paused briefly, during which I cleared my throat. "And, uh…all these…_things_? Why'd you have to bring them along? …Just to make a point?"

Kelmor chuckled. "I'm their master. They folla me where'er I go, lass. No choice in the matter." He, too, paused, and twisted his head in every direction as he – at least, I guessed – took in the sight of his menagerie. After a moment, he sighed. "An' I already told ya. This place needs ta be returned ta the way it used ta be – no more changin' evry morn 'n' night. 'Ells, no more changin' evry 'undred years. There 'as ta be a way to sep'rate the two parts. There 'as ta be a way they can exist by themselves."

_Interesting. _I had expected the so-called "General of Death" to be a rampaging monstrosity, but instead, here he stood before me now – calm and collected, and perfectly reasonable. Hells, he even had a plan that didn't sound like it was going to kill a large portion of some population. "And how exactly would you go about doing that?"

Kelmor nodded, as if he had anticipated the question. "An' there's where things get tricky. See, I dunno _quite_ 'ow to go about it, but I 'ave a feelin' tha' if I can beat tha' elf lass Maralen, then I can find a way ta make 'er teach me 'ow she uses 'er power. Or summin like tha'. But I need as much 'elp as I can get, ya know."

I pursed my lips in thought. "And so…you're asking us."

"Aye. So I am."

_Well then. _I had no idea whether or not this mysterious armored figure was lying to me or not, despite the gut feeling that was telling me to trust him. He had simply popped up out of the blue, horrific bodyguards in tow, with an easy manner and an almost easier plan – easier said than done, certainly, but still easy in the grand scheme of things. Best a woman, learn her powers, ameliorate a clearly malfunctioning system. Simple enough. _Harmless_ enough. But yet, then again…I _was_ an outsider on this plane, with hardly a scrap of knowledge about it besides the fact that it was largely wooded and pretty – both of which were relatively useless tidbits of information, to be honest. And I _did_ have a track record of placing my trust in the wrong people…

"Look," I said at last. I uncrossed my arms from over my chest, and let them drop to my sides as I forced my back to straighten. "Your plan sounds fair enough to me – especially if Doran agrees, as you say he does." I took a deep breath. "But…I'm not the decision-maker out of the two of us. If you want an answer, you're going to have to let me talk to Jace." After a moment of silence, I added, "Please."

There was another moment of silence – longer, by far, than mine – but then Kelmor acquiesced with a nod.

"Go. 'E'll wake up if ya try now."

I frowned. "You dispelled…whatever it was?"

"Aye."

And that was that. I wasted no time. Darting into the tent and away from the prying eyes of Kelmor's writhing mass of creatures, I fell to my knees at Jace's side. He was still as peacefully asleep as he had been when I had left him, with his arms drawn tight to his chest as he lay stretched beneath his blanket. Heart hammering, I reached down to shake his shoulders.

"Jace," I hissed. "Jace, _get up_."

It took a minute more, but he did.

The mage let out a quiet half-groan, and rolled over so that his head was pressed against my knees. I blushed and scooted back.

"Rana," he murmured. His eyes had slid open, and even in the darkness I could see their color as they locked on me – deepest blue, as always. They seemed to be lit from within.

Or, more likely, my imagination was running amok…as per usual.

"Nnngh..." Slowly, Jace lifted an arm to press two of his fingertips between his eyes. He shook his head, as if to clear away the fog of sleep. "I just…ah, I had the strangest dream…"

I winced.

It took one more minute for Jace's gaze to clear – abut when it did, he immediately caught the look of concern in my expression. Swiftly, his own face twisted into a similar visage.

"Rana…what's wrong? Why did you wake me up?"

I stole a glance back toward the entrance of the tent, which hung open ever so slightly._ I_ could see the scene awaiting us both outside from my vantage point, but Jace…

"Well," I said, as I drew in a long breath, "uh…just let me explain."


	25. Chapter 25

"So remind me again, why we're doing this?"

I braced myself against the back of Broadbark's hand as he came to a halt, and turned to look at Jace from across the clearing.

"Because…" I said, and reached my hand behind my head to tie back what hair had fallen from my ponytail, "…Kelmor agreed to help us if we helped him, and Doran supported the plan wholeheartedly?" I frowned. "What, why are you asking?"

The mage's lips twisted in a mirror image of mine. "You know what I mean, Rana."

_No, I don't. _I shook my head. Things had been…odd, between him and I, since the night before. One moment I would catch him looking at me out of the corner of his eye almost wistfully – or, well, so part of me hoped – and then the other he would avert his gaze, or speak to me in a voice as cold and distant as if it were addressing a stranger. It was…disconcerting, to say the least. I wasn't sure if I was alright with it or not. Either way, it certainly wasn't making the whole "storm Glen Elendra with a legion of treefolk" thing any easier – especially not with Kelmor, the great black mound of spiked metal he was, looming between us like a physical representation of our discomfort.

Overall, I just wanted to call it quits and planeswalk back to Ravnica for a nice, long nap.

Two straight days might do the trick.

"I meant what I said. Doran already agreed before we did, so it's not like we're rushing straight into something that's not our business…"

"Like that's stopped us before."

My eyebrow twitched in irritation. _Spirits,_ _what is __**with**__ him? _"You've always been the group leader, Jace. Don't try to pin things on me."

His brow furrowed at that now, and he opened his mouth to retort, but at Doran's rumbling approach he silenced himself in an instant. Even Broadbark's hand shook beneath my feet as the massive rootbeard lumbered closer.

"And tell me…why are the two of you fighting?" I folded my arms across my chest as the familiar boughs came into view, along with Doran's leafy brow as it raised over one eye. I had to hold myself back from sighing. "The last time we spoke, you were both rather amiable. Or…did I misjudge the situation?"

Jace and I exchanged a look. "It's…nothing, Lord Doran. We're just…" I waited to see if Jace would speak first, but he didn't, so I simply shook my head. "…Neither of us has gotten good sleep in awhile. We need some rest, is all. Once this is over."

The treefolk elder didn't look like he believed me for a second – but thankfully, though, he didn't make any further mention of the subject. "As you say. I came to tell you that my people are stationed throughout the perimeter on all sides, and are ready to advance into Glen Elendra herself at your command. Have you prepared yourselves for breaching her palace?

Kelmor, seated cross-legged atop the palm of another treefolk over to my left, shifted his weight and nodded. "Aye. I've sent all my folk after yers, Lor' Doran. 'll be just the three o' us, but we're planeswalkers. We can manage jus' fine."

Trunk creaking, Doran turned to him and gave a slight nod of whatever part of him passed as his head. "And your plan from there?"

"We'll find Maralen," Jace piped up, before Kelmor had a chance to get another word out. He was standing straight and unsupported on the palm of Odum's hand, several feet over to my right. When I turned from Kelmor to him, I saw that he had, uncharacteristically, planted his hands on his hips, and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to groan. "We'll subdue her, and I'll use my magic to imprison her long enough for us to get some answers. After that, we'll let Kelmor take care of her, and then we'll head back to Ravnica. I have some business I need to get back to."

"But Lord Doran, wait." I whipped right back around again and locked gazes with the elder. "Before we head back, you _will _allow me to complete the binding ritual, won't you? As you promised?"

Doran nodded. "As I promised. If you succeed in restoring this world to the balance that it needs, as we agreed upon, then you shall have your wish."

Now I nodded, in thanks. _Good. _This had all fallen into place far easier than I had anticipated – which worried me, to tell the truth, but there wasn't much that could be done about it. My only choice was to either back out (not an option at this point) or to keep on going and trust my fate to the whims of the spirits, without questioning what kind of fortune had tumbled into my lap. I wasn't ungrateful. I was merely…skeptical. But skepticism wasn't going to earn me my damned immortality.

"So we should go, then," I said. "Right now. If everyone is in place, then I don't see any reason to wait…"

To my surprise, though, instead of nodding again and setting off, Doran fixed me with a questioning look. "So anxious, child. You do not wish to prepare yourself any further?"

I blinked. "What else can I do to prepare?" My hands were shaking, balled into fists at my sides as they were, and I just wanted to get this whole fiasco _over with_. I already had the adrenaline pumping like liquid lightning through my veins, and I wasn't sure how long it would last. "If your army and Kelmor's army is all set, then that's that, right?"

"…As you say."

I didn't even bother to turn to Jace – I could tell that he was looking at me, but I didn't want to look back at him. Rankling my composure was _not _high on my list of priorities. "So then let's go. Take me in, Broadbark. I'm ready to fight."

The treefolk spoke not a word as he lifted his legs from the ground, and plodded his slow, deliberate way forward toward the edge of the treeline, toward the great wide beautiful clearing that was Glen Elendra and the glowing auras of all of its fae. Thanks to Jace's careful work, the illusions surrounding its perimeter had been dispelled for our eyes and the eyes of our allies, though they remained intact so as not to draw suspicion – so to our boon, we could see the place for what it was. It wouldn't be long before its defenders would be upon us, since Jace's additional sight- and sound-proofing illusions only worked at a certain distance, but by the time they wore off it wouldn't matter. We would be upon them, and they would have to scramble if they wanted to have a chance at mounting a resistance.

My heart pounded harder the closer we drew. I could feel the tingling hum of Jace's spell all around me, but I could also taste the rich mix of black and blue mana that welled like a font from the center of the Glen. It set my nerves alight, and prickled the hairs on the back of my neck.

When we broke through the barrier of their illusions, it felt like plunging headfirst into icy water.

I gasped aloud. By the time I had opened my eyes after having closed them on reflex, I could hear the cried of a thousand angry fae streaming toward us, in a shimmering blur that seemed to blend into one great mass.

Beside me, Doran let out a strange, guttural roar that sounded at once like branches snapping in a storm, and thunderclaps rolling through the hills. His people joined in to form a cacophony even as they rushed forward to meet the defenders, in the midst of an eerie chorus that I would have never expected to emanate from the mouths of trees. I shivered. Finally, almost reluctantly, I turned to Jace before he and Odum were lost among the chaos of the battle that was about to ensue.

His eyes met mine. To my surprise – and pleasure – they held no anger. They held only anticipation, and the faintest note of concern.

It was enough, I supposed.

_Looks like it's time to do or die._


	26. Chapter 26

"Move it or you're gonna lose your head!"

Clearly Jace was more concerned with summoning his steam drakes than the collapsing highbeam above us, so it was up to me to grab the sleeve of his cloak and drag him out of the way – in the nick of time, might I add. His weight threw me off balance, and we both went tumbling to the floor in a heap. The mass of splintering wood met marble right where we had just stood with a sickening _crack_.

I coughed and pulled my vest up over my face to shield myself from the cloud of dust. When it finally settled enough so that I could breathe – and actually open my eyes without feeling as if they were on fire – I realized that I was lying halfway across the mage's chest, and that his arm had reached out to catch my fall. I flushed instinctually. _Dammit Rana, now is __**not**__ the time!_

Jace noticed me staring, and I could swear that when his eyes met mine, I saw him flush too. Wishful thinking.

Kelmor came hurrying up the hallway after us then, plate armor a-clatter. Jace's three drakes keened and swooped to follow him, and came to a neat stop at both of our feet, wings beating the air back hard as they landed on the cracked floor. Jace still hadn't made a move to push me off of him, and I sure as hells wasn't going to be the one to break that – Well, not for a few more seconds at least, anyway. _It's purely for the sake of progress! Getting along is better than __**not**__ getting along right now…_

"Do yeh hafta be so messy when yeh cast yer spells, lass?" Kelmor hefted his already-bloodied battleaxe over one shoulder, and let out a derisive snort. "Yeh nearly crushed the both o' ya with that last'n!"

I scowled, and stood swiftly, drawing myself up to my full height as I took a step closer to him. _Well, there goes my goal of not being the first one to get up. _"At least I _got _her!" I gestured with a wave at the still form of the fae guard that had charged us, coming out of nowhere from around a corner and straight at my head. I hadn't been too pleased at the thought that I was killing a _person _this time and not just a summon, but I had had no choice – it was either "be a simpering pacifist," or "get some absurdly pointy weapon shoved in through one eye socket and out the other ear." I couldn't even tell what it had been – My blast of dark magic had rendered it into a twisted lump of steel, unusable and unrecognizable, beside her ashen body. No use trying to figure it out now.

Kelmor shook his head. I could hear Jace scrabbling against the slick marble behind me to get his footing, and then he swore quietly under his breath. _Should've worn better boots. _"Still…we can' just keep stoppin' here 'n' there 'cause yeh've gotta avoid bein' flattn'd by the scenery. They'll catch up ta us a' this rate!"

As much as I didn't want to admit it, he _was _right. It had taken enough for Doran, Broadbark, Odum, and all of the other treefolk (along with Kelmor's…horde, too, I supposed) to busy the army of fae defenders, and to create an effective enough diversion by the main entrance for the three of us to slip in unnoticed. Those defenders would start branching off and pouring in after us soon, and I certainly didn't want our allies' efforts to go to waste. We had to get moving. And I _did_ have to be a bit more careful.

Pressing my fingertips between my eyebrows, I sighed. "Fine, fine. The throne room's just up ahead, then?"

Kelmor nodded. "Aye. She en't gonna leave until the las' man's down ou' there. We're gonna hafta take the fight to her, if'n we wan' ta do so at all."

"I'm assuming you haven't changed your mind on that." Jace came up to stand beside me, brushing the dust off of his cloak and what was visible of his leathers. I glanced over at him, and saw him clench his gloved, etherium fist.

Kelmor nodded again. "Aye. Yeh got tha' right, boyo."

The mage smirked. The sight of his cocky, confident smile was familiar, and it lifted my spirits just a little – but at the same time, there was something about it that unsettled me. Whenever he looked at Kelmor, he got the oddest gleam in those blue eyes of his. I wanted to call it curiosity, almost, but…that didn't seem quite right. Suspicion, perhaps? It was the best guess I had.

_And if Jace is suspicious of Kelmor, then maybe I should-_

"Alright then." Jace clapped his hands together, and turned to face the drakes that stood, patiently, several feet away from both us and Kelmor. Their tails swished delicately behind them, and their pale grey tongues flickered out to taste the air every few seconds or so. All six of their beady little eyes were focused on their summoner. "I'll send these three in first, to give her something to handle and distract her until we can get close. Sound fair enough to you?"

Kelmor grunted. With a scrape and a _clank_ he pulled his battleaxe down from his shoulder, and slapped the far end of the handle into his awaiting palm. I winced at the proud red-and-silver shine of the blade, at the way he handled the heavy, curved thing as easily as if it were a child's toy. How much practice had he had with it, to be able to whip it around like that? It was so wicked looking…and even the tips of the handle were spiked at the ends…

_**Could I ask you a favor, Rana?**_

Jace's voice snapped me out of my thoughts in an instant, and I blinked before looking up at him. My mind was still half-elsewhere. It took me, in fact, more than several seconds to realize that he was speaking telepathically instead of out loud. _**What is it?**_

The mage's hand touched my arm, briefly, before he pulled his cloak's hood up over his head. _**Just get moving, first. He'll start wondering what's going on if we just stop and stare at each other like we're doing.**_

_**Oh! Right, sorry. **_I watched out of the corner of my eye as Jace whispered something to his drakes and then snapped his fingers, sending them soaring off down the hallway and around a corner. Despite their immense size, they moved far more silently than I had expected them to. The three of us set off at a brisk jog after them, throwing looks over our shoulders for pursuers. At least as of yet, there were none.

It was a good minute before I heard Jace's voice in my head again. When I stole a look to my left, I saw that his gaze was fixed straight ahead. His eyes were narrowed dangerously. Behind him, the orderly pattern of tapestries and intricate, organic wooden archways whizzed by in a blur. _**I need to know what you think about Kelmor.**_

_**Me? I already told you what I thought, when we-**_

_**That doesn't count. We were under duress then. He had us surrounded on all sides by his menagerie, and even if he wasn't actively threatening us, it was still a hostile situation. I want to know what you think NOW.**_

So I _had_ been right. Something about the dwarf wasn't sitting well with Jace, after all. _**Well, I think it's pretty damn convenient that we've only had one or two guards catch up to us, if that's what you're asking.**_

I could almost feel Jace's eyebrow twitch. _**Nice to know it's not just me. I don't trust this guy one bit. Yeah, he hasn't done anything YET, but…**_

…_**it all seems like it's falling together too easy. **_I finished Jace's thought as easily as if it had been my own, and now I could feel my eyes starting to narrow as we rounded another corner. _**I think Doran's too excited to get his tribe and his life back to normal to really look into what Kelmor's plans are, if you ask me.**_

_**Or he just doesn't care. To him, any leader is better than the one they have now. **_Jace's breath was coming hard and fast as he picked up the pace from a jog to a run. I could see the anxiety in his expression, and when we all heard a loud _crash _from up ahead, followed by a tremendous, roaring screech from what I assumed to be his drakes, it morphed to a look of full-on dread. His muscles visibly tensed, and for a second his eyes flashed a brilliant blue.

"Wha' was tha'?" Kelmor puffed from behind us.

Jace gritted his teeth. "Something's not right," he shouted. The words were for Kelmor only, because almost immediately after they left his mouth, I heard in my head, _**Stay with me, Rana. I don't know if we're about to run into a trap, but if we are, I'd rather us do it together than alone. At least that way we have two minds working on a way to get out.**_

There was no tender-heartedness in the way his tone resounded against my skull, but nevertheless his words warmed me. At the very least, it showed that he cared enough to be concerned for my well-being – and _that _was a Jace whom I could work with. I knew that I wasn't going to get a chance to discuss what had happened between us for quite some time, in all likelihood, but that really didn't matter right now.

All that did was making it through what lay ahead of us in one piece.

The high, sweeping archways of the throne room doors were upon us as soon as we rounded the final corner, and came to a halt at the foot of the carpeted steps leading up to their dais.

The massive wooden panels had been ripped from their hinges by some great force – Jace's drakes, from the looks of the claw marks that gouged them – leaving the room beyond bare for anyone to see. It was composed nearly entirely of panes of colored glass that had somehow been fastened between the tree branches of the forest's natural flora, growing up and around and through everything until the room was more…well…_tree_, than room. Contrary to the mass of tapestries that had covered the walls on our way here, what few walls there were in this place were unadorned. The only decoration at all that I could see was a thick, plush green carpet, leading up and around the dais upon which stood the ornately carved throne itself.

Upon that throne sat a figure cloaked in shadow. Small, slight. Nearly impossible to see clearly, and in truth, hardly a presence at all.

At its feet we could see the last remnants of Jace's drakes vanishing into the aether, joining back with the substance from whence they came.

"Well, well," came a soft, feminine voice from within those shadows, "this _is _a surprise."

She giggled. "Welcome back, my dear General."


	27. Chapter 27

"If yeh call me tha' one more time, woman, I'll have yer head on a pike."

The little horned figure simply smiled in response. It was hard to see her face clearly through the wall of dark smoke that writhed about her like a thing alive, but her flash of teeth was bright enough to cut through the gloom.

"I will call you whatever I want," she said, in a voice that rang out like a childish sing-song. "This is _my _domain, after all. I should have killed you, to be perfectly honest, but instead I am allowing you to state your case this one last time." Her smile grew wider, and the way it sent a glimmer of mirth into the recesses of her eyes made me shiver. There was something so very…_wrong _about the way she looked. "So do be grateful, _dear_. Really, I would find_ so_ much more enjoyment out of tearing you limb from limb."

My gaze shifted momentarily to Jace where he stood beside me – and when it did, my heart stuttered to a near-halt. His eyes were focused, wide and unblinking, on the elven woman atop her throne, and all of the color had drained from his face. Where his fist was clenched at his side, I could see that it was shaking. Hard.

_**Jace**_, I thought at him anxiously, even as my elbow nudged him in an attempt to bring him out of his trance. In front of us both, Kelmor clenched the handle of his mace tightly and took a few long strides forward. _**What's wrong? Something's wrong. Come on, you said we were in this together. Tell me.**_

_**Liliana**_, came his near-instant reply. At that word, I froze. _**That…that aura…it's not an aura, it's a spirit. I've seen it summoned before. By only one person.**_

Now I turned bodily toward Jace, even though he remained staring straight ahead. _**And…let me guess, that person was Liliana?**_

He nodded.

_Oh_.

Now it was my turn to pale, and I stole a quick glance out of the corner of my eye at Kelmor, who was slowly ascending the first few steps toward the dais.

_**Okay, well, that doesn't sound good, but…but can we PLEASE not worry about that now? **_Nervously, I reached out and took ahold of Jace's arm, with as gentle a touch as I could manage. He didn't move. _**I don't know what in the nine hells Kelmor is about to do, but I'm pretty sure we should probably start paying attention to what's going on. Alright? Please, Jace?**_

His eyebrow twitched ever so slightly, but that was the only outward indication of emotion he gave. _**Damn it, Rana, it IS important! I am NOT about to have us both walk into some trap that she's set up to get back at me for-**_

Oh, so _that_ was it.

I snatched up his other arm to pull him around, and gave him a hard yank so that he was forced to look down and face me, too. Before I even had time to process the annoyance that crossed his expression, I let out a snarl.

_**Jace, this is NOT about you. I don't give a damn what your problem with your ex-girlfriend is, but it is SIGNIFICANTLY less important than the fact that the crazy homicidal dwarf is about to start…I don't know, PARLEYING, or something, with the crazy homicidal elf queen. Spirits, pull yourself together!**_

At least my mental rant seemed to bring about _some _reaction in the mage, because the second I had finished, his brow shot straight up toward the hood of his cloak. As he looked down at me now, pure disbelief made its way across his face.

"You really don't get it, do you?" he said aloud.

I _had_ been wanting to hear the whole story about Liliana for quite some time now – since she had first been brought up in conversation, in fact, so what I had said about not giving a damn was a lie – but right now, that was the absolute last thing on my mind. Ever since my most recent brush with death had left me barely able to walk, my instincts of self-preservation had been making themselves known quite vehemently. Now I was especially determined to make my first priority keeping myself (and everyone else I cared about) alive for as long as I possibly could. If that meant yelling at Jace to snap him out of it, then so be it.

Dealing with a handsome, angry mage wasn't the worst thing I could imagine, after all.

"Kelmor!" Jace yelled, as he finally broke free of my grasp and took a few steps forward of his own. It was with relief that I watched his eyes widen when he saw how close the dwarf had gotten, and how calm Maralen, in turn, seemed – She was simply seated across her throne, legs draped luxuriantly over the side while she rested her chin in one hand. The intricate weaving of polished roots that made up her dress seemed to wiggle as I watched – which was almost as unsettling as the look in her eyes, I quickly decided. It didn't seem to faze her at all, though, that a heavily armored warrior, mace drawn, was now headed straight for her. If anything, she looked…bored.

Kelmor, for his part, didn't even seem to have heard Jace's shout. If he did, he wasn't paying it any heed. "Look here, ya fool witch," he growled. "I told yeh – Yer doin' things ta this place tha' ya don' even understan'. Yer too blin' ta see anythin' beyon' yer own power, an' I'll be damned if'n I let this go on any longer." He came to a sharp halt mere steps away – just far enough that he was out of reach of the black tendrils surrounding her, even when they lashed out at him like little whips. As he widened his legs in a battle-ready stance, the plates of his armor clanked together loudly. "I said it afore an' I'll say it again – If yeh don' agree ta my terms, then I'm takin' yer place. Whether I hafta do it by force or not, it don' matter."

His voice lowered then, dangerously. "An' lemme tell yeh – I have allies on my side tha' yeh _don_' wanna trifle with. So why don' yeh jus' play nice…"

At that, Maralen snorted disbelievingly and sat up. The shadows seemed to follow her movements, wrapping themselves about her anew when she had adjusted into position. "What, _those_ two?" She flicked her wrist in Jace and my general direction, and the titter of a laugh that followed suit set my blood to boiling. I didn't like her when I first saw her. Now I didn't like her even more. "And what have they done, other than stand around and look ineffectual?"

_I'll show you ineffectual, you bitch. _I didn't recognize the "spirit" of the shadows around her in the same way that Jace apparently did, but whatever it was, it was composed of black mana – and that was something I could manipulate.

I called a torrent of mana to my grasp, and summoned the largest vine-beast that my power could draw forth from the aether.

Once the creature coalesced into form at my side, I gave it its silent command, and its own tentacles – wreathed in black mana, from tip to root – lashed forth and broke through Maralen's shadow barrier with a sold _crack_. Her startled gasp as they wrapped around her and lifted her bodily from her throne really shouldn't have been as satisfying as it was, but…hells, she had taunted me. I was getting tired of being the loser all the time.

"What were you saying?" I wasn't doing a very good job of hiding the glee from my voice.

Kelmor chuckled. "Nicely done, lass. Makes my work a bit easier."

_**Rana, what are you doing? We don't want to antagonize her yet! **_

I scowled. _Shit. He's probably right. __**Well, I mean…at least…it's better to have her like this so we're at an advantage, right?**_

Jace shook his head. _**Next time, let ME handle the negotiations…**_

_**It's not like YOU were doing anything anyway. Kelmor was the one about to-**_

"So." Kelmor reached a tentative hand into what scattered remnants were left of the shadow barrier – and even though I couldn't see his face behind his helmet, I could sense his pleasure when his experiment met with no response. Apparently, my first-ever attempt at nullification with black mana had worked. "As I was sayin'…" He stepped entirely through the barrier and up to where my creature's vines held her fast. The wisps and tendrils struggled to coalesce enough to batter him, but to no avail. Their attacks bounced off of his armor harmlessly, like a single fly trying to gnaw a baloth to death. "I'm willin' to hear yeh out, if'n yeh want ta come to an…agreement. Like we discussed afore."

From how tightly the vines bound her, Maralen couldn't even move. The only thing she could do was toss her horned head in Kelmor's direction. "You think you can best me even now?" she spat. Her voice was like venom. "You are a _fool_, Kelmor Bloodbeard. Arrogant in your knowledge of this place as you are, you are an outsider. You know nothing of the walls that have been set in place, and yet you speak to me as if you built them from the ground up! Just _try _killing me! I assure you, it will do you no good!"

Suddenly, Jace stiffened. "And what "walls" would you be talking about, Maralen?"

The three of us – Maralen, Kelmor, and I – all gave a start in unison. Kelmor lowered the arm that had slowly been raising his mace, and Maralen whipped her narrowed gaze to the mage, taking in the sight of him appraisingly.

"Ah, Beleren, then…" To my alarm, a smirk spread across her thin lips. "Jace Beleren, planeswalker. I have heard of you before."

Jace shifted his weight from foot to foot, though it was such a slight movement that I wouldn't have caught it if I hadn't been looking directly at him. His arms lifted to cross over his chest. When he spoke, his voice had a harsh edge to it. "Likely because I have _been _to Lorwyn before…in recent history, no less. What of it?"

"Oh, nothing." There it was – that sing-song tone again. _Nothing, my ass. _"And to answer your question, love – Your kind is not unfamiliar to me." Even bound as she was, she giggled. Girlishly. I had a sudden urge to slap her. "Do not think that you are the only ones who make big plans, or leaves bridges unburned in case of…complications. I am as wise as any of you. It is only my misfortune that I was not born with your same innate power."

Unexpectedly, Jace snarled. The force of the bitterness in his tone took me aback, and my eyes shot wide even as his flared a bright, blazing blue.

"She won't come back for you, you deluded _witch_," he rasped. Crackling blue energy began to travel up his arms until it wreathed him from fingertip to shoulder. I abruptly realized that this conversation was going to go bad places _fast_. _**Jace**_, I started to plead to him, _**calm down**_, but it was clear that he was _not_ in the mood for listening. _Great_. "She's moved on to bigger and better things than you. If you have the _gall_ to think that you were the one playing her like a marionette, all this time, then you-"

"How precious." Maralen snorted. Her voice lilted, mockingly. "The little boy can read minds. So now you think you know everything, is that it? Because you know who I am, now? What I've done?"

"I may not know everything," he hissed, "but I know more than you do. And that's enough."

"Jace," I called, rushing forward so that I was in stride with him again, but far enough away that his aura of angry blue mana couldn't touch me. "What in the nine hells is going on?"

But he only shook his head. There was a long, tense moment of silence before finally I heard his voice in my head – _**I'll explain later. **_But even then, that wasn't the answer I wanted. He had said we were in this together. Whatever happened to that? Was that just some pretty phrase to…to pacify me? Really, did it even matter that I was here at all, with how little good I'd done _as usual_?

But then Jace nodded, breaking my fuming reverie – and before I could so much as blink Kelmor had lifted his mace high, and poised it directly above Maralen's still-smirking head.

"Jus' givin' yeh what yeh asked for" he muttered, before bringing the weapon crashing down.

* * *

><p>It was several hours later before my anger had cooled enough that I could think about Jace again without a tiny part of me wanting to strangle him.<p>

We had left Kelmor to clean up the mess left behind – both literal and figurative – in Glen Elendra, by both his and Doran's request, to retreat with the treefolk elder and his tribe back to their domain. Though the fae guards were too preoccupied with the new distraction brought about by the death of their leader and thus didn't gave chase as we made our way out, I spent the entire trip in silence. I was too frustrated, too confused by what had just happened and the rapidity of it all. I was so hurt, too, that it apparently didn't warrant an explanation to me, that I simply sat myself down on Broadbark's palm cross-legged, and glowered a path straight ahead into the forest as we went. Jace tried to speak to me several times – both aloud and through telepathy – but not once did I budge. Call it childish, but it really was all I could do. Anything else would have resulting in me launching into a tirade, which I'm sure neither of us needed right now.

Once we had reached our destination, Doran discussed with me plans of making good on his end of the bargain, and partaking in the "binding ritual," as he called it – It would take time to settle into the new circadian cycle that he assured me Kelmor knew how to bring about with his magic, but once things had reached some semblance of normalcy again, it would be done. At the time, I hadn't even really cared to hear the good news. I was still mad then, and so it was all I could do to nod and smile and "thank you, Lord Doran" my way through the conversation until it was over. After that I had gone off to sulk against the trunk of the largest tree I could find in the grove, while Jace went off to talk to Doran about who knows what. I didn't. I didn't even _care_ to know what. It wasn't like my opinion mattered any, right?

And now that was where I sat. Alone. Scraped and scratched and bruised, with my hair falling into my eyes and my knees tucked up against my chest. Scowling like a little five-year-old who hadn't gotten her way. _Pathetic_.

_Maybe I should just go back. It's clearly not doing me any good to stay here._

Tentatively, I poked my head around the trunk of the tree for a moment. Yep – Jace was still there, talking to Doran with that damn serious businesslike expression of his that I just now realized I had grown to hate. It wasn't the Jace I felt I knew – the caring, witty man with the boyish smile and who had teased me back in Ravnica, or thrown his shirt at me by the river, or kissed me in the tent…

…_Damn it. So__** that's**__ why I'm so mad._

I sighed. It was _definitely _not doing me any good to stay here. I was just going to sit and mope until spirits knew when and Jace was done with what he had to do, and all the while stew on my own combination of anger and misery and…well, heartsickness, I suppose. What I really needed more than anything was to go back to the compound and sleep off my bad mood. It wouldn't cure it entirely – of that I was certain – but it would help the process along. Besides, I _was_ exhausted.

_Jace will see my aether trail when he planeswalks back_, I reassured myself as I drew in the mana of the forest all around me. _He'll know where I went. There's no need to tell him I'm leaving._

I closed my eyes, and felt the twine of leaves and vines around me as I was pulled away from Lorwyn and into the turmoil of the Blind Eternities.

For what felt like a long moment, I drifted.

The whirlwind of color and not color and sound and not sound tore at me with violence, but I paid it no heed. In fact, it was almost a comfort – Its ferocity somehow gave justification to all the feelings churning in my own gut, if that made any sense. I was sure it didn't. But really, this was all in my own mind, so I didn't care much about logic or rationale in relation to other people in this specific case.

After a time, I finally began to make my way toward the now-familiar presence of Ravnica. It shone through the chaotic void like a beacon, and I held onto that beacon tight as I pressed forward, steadily. Here, I felt oddly calm. Perhaps it was the solitude of it all, or the way I was more some kind of…coalesced energy, rather than a distinct being. At least, that was the best guess I could muster.

But suddenly that peace was snapped underfoot like a twig, as I felt an unnaturally _physical_ sensation wash over me-

Cold. I was cold.

I wasn't supposed to feel cold here.

It took a moment for my senses to readjust and for me to realize that I was surrounded on all sides by something webbed and shining – a net, _that_ was it – and made of a dull grey alloy.

…_Etherium_?

But when the realization of what exactly being in a neat _meant _at last hit me, I screamed. I writhed and thrashed and struggled with all the might that whatever form of a body I had now could muster, but none of it mattered. I didn't know how to call upon my mana here, either. I couldn't cast spells. I was powerless.

The Blind Eternities swirled around me like a vortex as I screamed again, and felt myself being swiftly dragged away.

* * *

><p>I couldn't recall blacking out.<p>

When I came to, though, everything hurt.

I groaned. It took a minute or so for my eyes to focus again – and when they did, I had to blink several times to make sure I was seeing properly.

I was in…a giant box. A four-walled room, massive and perfectly square, and constructed entirely out of smooth, unadorned etherium. No windows, no doors – well, save for perhaps one. There was a clean rectangular seam in the wall straight ahead of me, and upon seeing I was reminded strongly of the passageways down in the bowels of Ish Sah.

Apparently I guessed right, because hardly a few seconds after I had pushed myself upright into a sitting position (grunting in pain all the while), the metal liquefied and melded seamlessly into the walls around it. Now, standing in the darkness of the archway beyond, was a tall figure – a man, clad in nondescript blue and silver robes that fluttered gently around his feet. Everything about him was plain – from his short dark hair to his symmetrical facial features – and the expression of utter placidity that he wore seemed almost…out of place, though I couldn't put my finger on why. With a start, I realized that it unnerved me. When I looked up into his eyes and found them devoid of any sort of emotion, I felt a knot tighten in the pit of my stomach, and then coil even further when I finally mustered the coherency to call upon my mana and was greeted with an overwhelming sense of nothingness in response. I couldn't cast spells. I couldn't planeswalk. _Oh spirits. _I could feel sweat beginning to break out on my forehead, and my body set itself to shaking. Panic clawed at my insides like a wild animal.

"Lord Bolas will be in to see you shortly," the man said.


	28. Chapter 28

"Well well, Miss Ranewen – I've been waiting a long time for a chance to meet you."

In the span of time it took me to blink, the dragon was simply…there. There were no other words to describe it.

He was more massive than anything I had ever seen.

Back on Zendikar, my home, there were hedrons the size of castles, and floating chunks of land – held fast by the Roil – that seemed to have been plucked straight from the sides of mountains, between what could only be a giant's thumb and forefinger. The home trees of the Turntimber and of my own forest were gargantuan in themselves. I had seen oceans, and vast plains, and I had stared into the depths of the horizon from what felt like the very apex of the world.

Still, nothing I had seen could compare to the creature standing before me now.

He balanced on his two hind legs, looming over me tall and proud with his neck craned down to peer at me. His scales glistened green-gold and oil-like in the light that emanated from everywhere and nowhere, and beneath them, powerful, corded muscles rippled with every movement he made. His wings – wide as entire buildings, it seemed – flared out once (perhaps a display of his power, to frighten me? If so, it was working). With a _whoosh_ and a _snap_, they folded back in neatly. As I found myself staring up into first his eye and then into the glowing disk between his horns, I felt a lump settle in my throat. This was it. I wasn't going to survive the day – no way no how. I was going to die here, in this spirits-damned pristine etherium box, and no one would ever be able to find my body. I might as well accept my fate while I still had the time.

"Why did you bring me here?"

The dragon's brow (could I even call it that?) lifted. "Oh? To-the-point, aren't you? I see." He chuckled, and the sound rumbled through my entire body like an earthquake. "Well, my dearest, I had you brought here to me so that we could get a chance to…chat, shall we say. It would be rude of me not to introduce myself to the newest planeswalker roaming the Blind Eternities, after all."

I watched the swish of the dragon's tail suspiciously, and it wasn't long before my own brow arched. "_Chat_?"

He chuckled again. For whatever reason, the sound of it was like bricks scraping together. "Yes, _chat_. Why do you sound so dismayed, Wennie?"

_Oh, perfect. He has a nickname for me now. Playing with his food before he eats it._

I shook my head. My heart was racing a mile a minute, and I could feel the sweat dripping down from my temples, but I knew that I had to stay calm. I had to focus. Even if I wasn't going to make it out of here alive, perhaps I could convince him to kill me quickly if I went along with his…_whatever_ this was.

"I'm not dismayed. I just...I-I just have no idea who you are, or what's going on."

The dragon snorted – puffing a gust of hot smoke from his nostrils in the process – and straightened up, his neck craning toward the ceiling. "What – You mean to say that no one's told you about me?" His wings unfolded then. I flinched back as their pointed tips came close to grazing my arm, but they stopped just short. "About Nicol Bolas, elder dragon and planeswalker? Truly, _no one _has said a thing?"

Fearing the consequences, I shook my head again.

There was a long, heavy silence, and then finally Nicol Bolas sighed. He relaxed, and sunk his bulk back down onto his hind legs with a _thump_. "Very well, then. I suppose I can't blame _you _for your ignorance. You're merely the victim of a community…one that chooses to keep you, regretfully, in the dark."

Something in my gut churned at the way he said that. "What do you mean?"

Another snort. "What do I mean? I think you _know _what I mean, Wennie – Just take a look at yourself! Take a look at what you've been doing ever since your spark awakened, and tell me in all honesty that you're satisfied with the way things are. Go on." He leaned forward, a wicked grin creasing his reptilian lips. "I'm listening."

I felt a wave of nausea rising in the pit of my stomach. _No. How can he know about them…about __**me**__? There's no possible way. He __**can't**__-_

"I most certainly _can_, and I do. I haven't passed the last 10,000 years simply sitting on my haunches atop a mound of gold and jewels, dear girl."

My head snapped up sharply at his words. Breath coming fast, I met Nicol Bolas's emerald-eyed gaze straight on. When I struggled to produce speech, my chest tightened.

"How…how are you reading my mind like that?"

Bolas rolled his eyes – certainly a strange sight, coming from a dragon. "Really now, Wennie. You _must _stop having such low expectations of me. Mind-reading is not a difficult task." That eerie grin of his widened even further, and I could see the sharp, gleaming razors of his teeth hidden just behind. "The skill that your little lover Jace boasts of so much is far from being unique, you know."

It took all I had not to double over and vomit right then, what with how violently my stomach dropped down to the floor.

_Oh spirits oh spirits oh spirits oh spirits __**WHY**__ did he have to bring up __**THAT**__-_

One shaking arm wrapped itself around my abdomen. "Y-You've got it wrong, I swear!" I winced at how lame the words sounded coming out of my mouth, but I couldn't stop them. As always (_damn it all_), I couldn't stop my blush either. We're not lovers at all, we're just friends!" _Oh._ _Of course. That was __**perfectly **__convincing, Rana. Just deny it – __**That's**__ gonna get you out of trouble._ _Right._ I nearly groaned.

As I had expected, Bolas barked out a harsh laugh – like a slap to my eardrum. "Don't play coy, I know your secrets. I know _everything _that transpires in that old hideout. I built it, after all. I like to keep track of my old projects."

_Hideout?_

It took me several agonizingly long seconds to realize that the only place he could possibly be talking about was the exact place that I hoped he _wasn't _talking about – the Consortium compound.

"You _what_?" I had already decided by now that pushing the whole "no really, Jace and I _aren't _lovers, we're just confused idiots!" route would not prove to be a good choice, so instead I rounded my attention on more important matters. "You're…you're saying you _created _the Infinite Consortium?"

Bolas's tail swished to curl regally around his feet. "Indeed I did. It belongs to me, though I have the man who stole it from me quite securely under my claw. He is…of no concern to me. At least, not now. But as for the current owner…"

Something in the dragon's tone sounded…ominous, beyond all my reasoning. A knot curled in the pit of my stomach. "Please," I begged. I could feel my whole body shaking now and I was _sure _Bolas could see it, but I didn't care. My life was forfeit anyway, wasn't it? In all the tales I had heard, wasn't this how dragons operated? "I don't know why you brought me here or why you're telling me all this, but _please_… justdon't hurt Jace. He's trying to do something good. He's trying to…to save the Multiverse. Trying to save _you_. You have to-"

"_Have _to?" In an instant, Bolas's head was mere inches away from my own, and I gasped and scooted back until I felt hard etherium against my shoulders. Even then, the dragon's breath was in my nostrils. His snout was all that filled my vision. His voice was low, dangerous, and so close to me that it was like a shockwave, rattling itself all the way down to my bones. "I don't _have _to do anything, Wennie. I'm not sure if you're quite clear on that matter yet, but I would suggest you _make _yourself clear. Immediately."

Absurdly, I nodded. With dragon fangs merely a few inches away from my face, there really wasn't much coherent thought going through my mind. It was all I knew to do.

Bolas hesitated, and then nodded ever so slightly to himself. He pulled back. "Good." Slowly, slowly, he drew up to his full height, and began to pace his way from one end of the room to the other. I allowed myself one stunned moment to marvel at the sight of a dragon walking on two legs – but the instant I remembered what was going hereand what that dragon could _do_, I stopped. No time for time for _anything_, other than surviving.

"Now that you understand who's in charge, then, I think I'll finally get to that point you so wanted to hear. Still clear?"

I realized that Bolas had stopped pacing long enough to fix me with a pointed stare. I swallowed in a vain effort to moisten my parched throat, and nodded again. Vigorously.

Bolas smirked. "Excellent, excellent. Wonderful. Now that I have your attention..." He paused – whether for dramatic intent or not, I couldn't tell for the life of me – and stood staring at one of the etherium walls for a time. I could only guess that he was lost in some kind of thought. "…I have a little task for you, Wennie. I task that I can trust to you, and to no one else. I can hear your thoughts already. _Why me_, you are thinking? Well, I'll tell you. All answers will come in good time with patience – but first, I must tell you the task. It's the simple order of progression, isn't it?"

Abruptly, the dragon whipped around to face me again. My skin prickled at the sight of the new, malicious gleam in his eyes. Perhaps he had finally decided to devour me, and this was all just a game for his own entertainment. After all, he _did _look rather hungry…

"I want you, Wennie" he said then, simply, "to kill Ajani Goldmane for me."


	29. Chapter 29

It had been a long time since I'd been intimate with that feeling you get when your body seems to understand the implications of something, before your mind gets a chance to mull it over…that horrible, horrible sense of nausea where your internal organs drop right down your throat and keep on falling until they hit your feet.

That feeling and I? Well, let's just say we were getting to know each other _quite_ nicely right about now.

"Kill…" I swallowed. Hard. _This is not happening this is not happening oh spirits_. "Kill…who?"

"You heard me, Wennie. Ajani Goldmane." That hulk of a dragon swept his face down close to mine again, tail lashing out behind him like a whip. I could feel the rush of air prickle my skin as he did so. "You've heard of him, I'm sure…the kittycat your dear friends have been hunting down to recruit?"

_I know perfectly well who he is, you overgrown lizard. If you would stop getting so close to me, maybe I could __**think **__straight! _"How do you know about my friends? About what they're trying to do?" I wasn't able to hold back that question anymore – I'd been biting my tongue for long enough now, and danger or no danger, I was tired of playing games. So long as I wasn't a cocky asshole, perhaps showing some shred of self-assurance might garner me a little respect…at least, enough for an answer. A straight one.

_Eh…then again, my judgment could be completelywrong, and I could just end up in between his teeth in about two seconds flat._

"I'll cut you just a bit of slack since you're new around here, my dear, but…do understand that this is a one-time deal." Bolas settled down on his haunches and curled his tail about his body, elegantly, like he had done before. Some far corner in my brain noted that there was something catlike in all of his movements. "Though it's not nearly as widely acknowledged anymore as I would like, we planeswalkers have a…ah…" He tilted his head a little as he regarded me. "…_hierarchy_, shall we say, around here." He chuckled. Those lips of his pulled back in a strangely human smile. "Consider me as being at the top of it all. The pyramid, the ladder, whatever have you. Truly, the metaphor is of little importance. All that _is _important is that you realize how terribly much power I possess in comparison to you and your…friends." His smile widened into an outright, leering grin. "Their antics amuse me greatly. Like mice, skittering about beneath my feet. Sometimes, they may even prove relevant to me – whether as a boon or as an annoyance – but always, I am aware of them. I know where they live, where they eat and sleep and breathe and carry about their business. I watch them. I study them. And as such, none of their movements can escape my eye. It's as simple as that, Wennie." He chuckled again, this time with a hint of malice. "Does that answer your question sufficiently?"

I could only nod. Omnipotence was a term that I'd come to understand as being a potential in all of the planeswalkers I'd associated with so far – after all, I'd _seen _what each of their different brands of magic could do. But…_omniscience_?

In all honesty, that thought scared the shit out of me.

"So. Now that our knowledge of the situation is on even terms…" Before I could even blink, Bolas had curved a claw around the small of my back – long, hard, and very very sharp, even with as delicate a touch as he was deigning me. I froze. "...you understand how very important it is to carry out this little request for me, hmmm?"

"I…um." My voice came out in a pathetic little squeak. I wasn't even cognizant of the concept of embarrassment at this point – Dragon claw. Back. Internal organs. _**IMMINENT DEATH**_. There were far more pressing matters at hand than whether or not I was sounding like as much of a hardass as I wanted. I tried my utmost not to squirm. "Wh-Why…do you want him dead? Didn't you just say that you're-"

"_That_, my dear, is _my _personal business." The ever-so-present claw dug in a little further, and my breath came out as a hiss between my teeth. "Nothing that you need fret about. Unless, perhaps, you wish for the lives of those friends of yours to become my personal business as well…? I assure you, it wouldn't be a difficult task at _all_ for me to update myself on their habits…"

My body stiffened. _No. He doesn't mean…_

"Jace Beleren…as you said, he wishes to play the mighty hero and, oh – save the world from the Eldrazi, wasn't it? Well now. Such a lofty and noble goal.

"And that young artificer who's been taking _such _good care of you? Ah, I remember him well indeed. Venser – That's his name, yes? It was so long ago, back on the cliffs of Madara…I wonder, how is he doing now? He was such a bright boy back then. I'm certain that he's only improved in his skill, and that he's putting his creations to good use as well."

I hadn't thought it was possible, but my heart sunk even deeper into the vortex that had opened up, and had ommenced pulling everything in me down to the abyss at the pit of my stomach. _This is a threat. It's not even subtle. He's…he saying that…_

"That spitfire, Chandra Nalaar. I can imagine how comforting it is to be able to have someone you can relate to in times of such turmoil." He chuckled, those bricks scraping together again. "After all, you women have to 'stick together,' don't you? Isn't that the phrase? I could have heard it wrong, I'll admit.

"Oh! Yes, that's right. She was just recently reunited with that soldier of hers, wasn't she? Gideon Jura. I heard tell that he stood his ground against an Eldrazi titan with nothing more than his weapon and the sheer force of his nerve. Quite a catch for her, wouldn't you say?"

"Stop." I spoke in a whimper, before I could hold back. Horror clawed at my insides, but my mouth was already moving, and for the life of me I couldn't close it. "Please, stop. I get it. You don't h-"

"Of course! Yes, yes, I almost forgot!" The dragon laughed heartily. The rumble of his voice – like thunder, deep and booming – shook the room, though the etherium walls around me showed no signs of giving. His claw pulled me a few inches closer. "Vincenius, that old bastard! One of the few walkers who can even _begin _to compare in age to myself. I must say, I am both impressed and pleased that he's managed to last so long beyond the Mending. What is he now…a pirate still? Or, no…a doctor? Aiding the Mirran resistance against their Phyrexian oppressors? Ah, how sickeningly admirable of him…"

"_**STOP**_!" Just as much as that fool tongue of mine couldn't keep silent, I couldn't stop the tears from welling in my eyes and spilling over onto my cheeks. They fell, hot and stinging. My throat burned too. "Stop it, dammit, I _**GET **_it! I _**get **_that you can kill them all in a second, a-alright?" My head slumped over onto my chest as the realization hit me that, for my inadvertent disrespect, I likely wasn't going to live to see another hour. Even now, I could feel that claw lifting, and hear the _whoosh _as it was pulled swiftly up into the air. _Guess I might as well go down defending my dignity. _"I'm not…I'm not stupid. I know that I don't have a choice…"

And there it was. Appearing like the flash of an expertly swung blade, the claw tore through the air in front of me to rake a jagged line across my abdomen. I felt like I was watching through someone else's eyes as cloth and skin ripped open, and blood gushed down my leggings…boots…onto the gleaming grey floor…I was vaguely aware of collapsing to that floor before I was knocked nearly senseless by the pain. I screamed.

"_That _was a little reminder for you to watch your tongue, Wennie." His voice was fuzzy. Absurdly, I thought that it sounded almost…comical. It floated in and out, though the note of danger it held remained most certainly steady. "I will not tolerate this flippant attitude you seem so fond of. Remember that."

It took effort, but I blinked several times and clutched my arm to my stomach. It was hot and wet and sticky there. How much blood had I lost? I couldn't…think. I should have been focusing on his words, but…I just couldn't. I couldn't even look up at him…

"So, I have given you your assignment. I expect it to be carried out with a sense of…professionalism, yes? I have faith that you are capable of such a thing. Have pride in your work, my dear. It needn't be terribly hard."

There was a loud ringing in my ears, and then suddenly I felt myself being lifted into the air. A strange sensation – the rush of mana? It was pure power, and strong enough to reach me through my haze – came to me then, and buffeted me raw. _The Blind Eternities. That's what it feels like._ …_But…I didn't…_

"Give the master of the Consortium my regards," came Bolas's voice one last time, and then I felt as if I was being rocketed through the gaps between time and space.

In another blink, it was over. The torrent of the Blind Eternities had passed across me like a mere gust of wind, and now I was somewhere…different. It took a moment for me to open my eyes.

Stairs. In front of me, there was a familiar carpeted set of stairs, and there was that little discolored spot where I had accidentally spilled one of Venser's healing potions while I tried to hobble all the way down on my own. Lesson learned – don't carry open vials when you're walking on broken legs.

_Jace…he should be here already…_

I hadn't dragged myself even halfway up the steps when my body simply gave out on me, and I could move no more. I teetered over onto one side. The arm not beneath me flailed for purchase on something…anything – but really, it was useless.

All I could do was watch the blood pool around me and soak into the carpet, as my eyes fluttered closed. My heartbeat pounded against my eardrum, and the last thing I was aware of before I lost consciousness was the sound of it slowing – steadily, but surely. My arm fell limp. The world around me lost its color, and the sound of a man's shout reached my ears just as everything slipped away.


	30. Chapter 30

I stirred, and then I woke.

_Ow. _

The first thing I noticed as soon as I slipped back into consciousness was the pain that crawled through my gut, and split my insides in two. I nearly passed right back out.

_Where am I…?_

After what felt like an hour, I finally managed to force my eyes open. My head throbbed. It was hard to see, but I could make out the blurry shapes of a room around me.

I was back home – back in the Consortium. The curtains were drawn, and my familiar warm bedcovers were pulled up to my chin. Everything was calm and still and silent. Though I couldn't put a real reason to my feelings, all of it was, well…it was comforting. Perhaps it was because, for once, I wasn't getting my ass handed to me on a platter by some absurdly powerful being, and I wasn't fearing for my life…at least, not currently. When I chanced a look beneath the covers, I noticed that I wasn't dripping entrails all over the sheets. I was bandaged and bloody, to be sure, but it could've been worse – Much worse. Really, I had been half-expecting not to wake up. It wouldn't have been the first time that that thought had popped into my head…

_Wait…when did I start calling this place 'home?'_

I barely had time to ponder on that last revelation before I suddenly became aware of the sound of soft breathing next to me, and I realized with a start that I wasn't alone. With effort, I turned.

It was Jace. He was sleeping soundly in a chair beside my bed, his head drooped over his chest. His mess of dark hair covered his eyes. To my odd amusement – odd considering my current predicament, which really should have distressed me more than it was – he was wearing his usual cloak like a blanket.

I blinked to try and clear the cloudiness from my vision. Wondering how much I'd missed on my previous look-over, I began to take in details around the rest of the room – and found that I had missed quite a bit, in truth. I had a profound sense of déjà vu wash over me when I noticed the bottles and flasks and vials of gods know what littering my table. Ah. _Venser must be here_, I thought. But yet, there were strange metallic implements there as well, and I'd certainly never seen the artificer use any of those when he was treating me before. They looked almost…medicinal, rather than alchemical. Tools for stitching and cutting and…_perhaps…_

My budding suspicions were confirmed when the door suddenly burst open. Dressed in a thick black high-collared cloak, and with his dark hair billowing behind him, in walked a familiar mer – followed suit by Venser and, to my immense surprise, an _elf_. An elf _woman_, at that. She was slim and dainty and altogether graceful, with hair of deepest gold to frame a rather pointed glare upon her pretty little face. It alighted upon my sleeping guard as soon as she entered the room. With a _harrumph_, she marched right over to him and began shaking him by the arm. I stared. Part of me was fascinated by her being an elf, and a woman, and _here _right in front of me, and the other part was utterly curious as to what she was about to do.

"Berrim," she snapped. Her voice was light as air. "Berrim, get up, you're in the way."

"Thought I told you las' time not to call me that…" Jace's eyes were fluttering open, though only barely. I found myself entertained by the rather groggy way in which he was slurring his words.

"And _I _told you that I will call you whatever I like." She dragged on Jace's arm, which had gone limp and floppy in her grasp. It was the left one. The not-etherium one. I couldn't even think of the proper word, in my stupor. "Up, up, up! Wake up! She's up herself, and we all have some talking to do!"

"How're you feeling, Rana?" With reluctance, I dragged my gaze away from the elf and over to the right, where Vincenius and Venser were peering down at me. Vincenius was standing, Venser kneeling. Both had concerned expressions on their faces, though Venser's was far more gentle. Vincenius looked almost as if he were sizing me up. Had I not already developed a fondness for the good doctor, I might have been on my guard after seeing that.

"Not great," I admitted. My voice was a harsh rasp – far worse than I had expected it to be. Then again, I _was_ sorely underestimating the severity of my predicament at the moment. I wasn't quite sure why.

"Well, at least Emmara got to you before you bled out." Venser was trying to sound cheerful – for me, I knew. He was doing the same thing he had done when he tended to me before: put on a happy face and a happy tone when things are bad, and keep on with it until they're all better. It hadn't helped much then, but the fact that he had cared enough to try and keep my spirits up back then was what mattered. Even now, I couldn't help the small smile that touched my lips.

And the way my heart beat just a little too fast when he reached out, pressed his hand to my forehead to check my temperature, and met my gaze. _Shit. _

The moment passed, and both men turned and looked to the elf as she swept around the front of the bed to kneel at my side next to Venser. She pulled back the bedcovers. Gently, she pressed a hand to the blood-soaked bandages on my torso. I flinched back in anticipation, but…strangely, her touch didn't hurt. A faint white light glowed about her fingertips, and I suddenly recognized the feel of mana. _A healer. _

I was staring again. She noticed, and lifted her head to fix me with a smile.

"Emmara Tandris," she said, by way of introduction. I could listen to her speak all day – The melodic cadence of her voice reminded me so much of home. At once, my heart ached. "I don't know if Ber-er, _Jace-_-has spoken of me before, but I'm an old friend of his."

"I think he did." I coughed. The action sent a spasm of pain through me, but Emmara's white mana was quick to dull it. My muscles relaxed. "He must've. Your name sounds familiar."

"Well, he had that angel friend of his come and fetch me a few days ago, quick as lightning." Her hands began to palpate my abdominal region. Still her touch didn't hurt, but the pressure was uncomfortable…and unavoidable. I squeezed my eyes shut. "You were in a horrible state. If Jace hadn't stopped the bleeding on his own, you would've died right then and there. For an hour or so, we weren't even sure if we could stabilize you. Your wound was so severe…"

"Not that you're out of the clear yet," Vincenius interrupted. He leaned forward, running his own fingertips over the wound that, without the mitigating effect of white mana, felt like tongues of fire dragging across my skin. He seemed to be searching for a reaction. I bit back a yelp at his touch, but the way my body jerked seemed to give him enough of an answer. "I'm going to need to do a bit of surgery if this is to heal properly, Ranewen. And I'm going to need a straight answer as to what caused it."

My eyes widened with a surely-noticeable fear. Venser was the closest to me, and indeed, he picked up on it. His hand reached out to cover mine and give it a reassuring squeeze. "S-Surgery…?"

"Yes. I'm sorry, my dear, but there's no other choice. I'll do all I can to make it as painless as possible."

"There was only so much I could do," Emmara said apologetically. She pulled the blankets up to cover my bandaged chest, and brushed the hair out of her eyes as she sat back on her heels. "I'm not trained in the same way that Mr. Vincenius is. I could stabilize you, like I said, but with a wound that deep…" She let out her breath slowly. "I can't do anything substantial to close it properly. If I tried, I'm afraid that I would only make things worse."

I shook my head. Bad choice, as the room around me began to spin, so I laid my head down on my pillow and waited a moment. "Don' understand. Why're you guys even here?" I tried to indicated Vincenius and Venser with my chin, but I wasn't quite sure that my body was comprehending what my brain wanted me to do. I honestly didn't care, though. I was too exhausted and in pain to care. And frustrated – How many times had I been forced to recover from a serious injury? What was this, the hundredth?

"You were carrying this around with you." When I looked over to Jace, who was now sitting on the end of my bed, I saw that he was holding up the frame of the little glass ball Venser had given to me before Jace and I left for Lorwyn – the glass inside it was shattered, its murky, misty contents vanished. I had been keeping the thing on me ever since Venser had put it in my hand. I had almost forgotten that I had had it. "I followed your trail through the Blind Eternities when I was coming back to Ravnica, and it just… stopped short. I figured that something bad must have happened. I didn't want to draw any more attention to myself by walking to Mirrodin to ask for Vincenius's help in fixing you up when I found you, so I used this." His voice was still groggy, though significantly less slurred. As I watched him, he turned the remnants of the frame over and over in his hand. "I know Venser's been studying under Vincenius. Figured it'd bring both of them running here."

"Well, it worked." Venser smiled at Jace, showing teeth in a little grin. He chuckled. "That was pretty quick thinking on your part."

Jace mussed the back of his hair with a hand. "Yeah, well."

There was a moment of silence, which quickly grew tense with anticipation. I could tell that everyone in the room had been waiting for me to wake up, and I could guess why – They wanted to know the as-of-now mysterious origin of my near-deadly wound. Which was a completely reasonable desire. I couldn't fault a one of them for it.

Vincenius, of course, was the first to put a voice to that desire – again. "So, Ranewen-"

"Yeah," I croaked. I cleared my throat, winced against the resulting pain, and looked over at him.

Suddenly, I realized it. I remembered.

That dragon's laughter – bricks scraping against bricks – echoed in my mind, and sent chills racing up and down my spine, like mad.

_If I tell them all what happened, then everyone's gonna be in danger…_

I swallowed. I took one more look around the room, at all the expectant – yet concerned – faces staring at me. Waiting. Some of them seemed just as anxious as mine must have been. In a state like this, I was no good at hiding my own emotions.

"I…" I swallowed again_. _My mouth felt dry. "I…well…"

_Oh, gods damn it._


	31. Chapter 31

Well...fantastic."

I couldn't think of any good words to describe the expression on Vincenius's face at the moment. Perhaps...exasperation? Mixed with a tinge of horror, to be sure.

Honestly, I didn't even want to look around the room at everyone else.

My choice of action instead was to hang my head and avert my gaze, with the secondary purpose of hiding the cheeks that had to be fifty shades of red by now. "I'm sorry."

"No..." Vincenius sighed, and slumped down onto the edge of my bed. His coat rustled as it shifted to accommodate the movement. "No, you shouldn't be sorry. It wasn't your fault that you got plucked out of the Blind Eternities and dropped right into the worst possible situation. And no one properly warned you about Nicol Bolas, either..."

I remained silent. What was there to say? I'd already probably screwed us all over by opening my big mouth and spilling everything. But still...

_I couldn't just deal with that on my own. Not in this state._

"Nicol Bolas?" came Emmara's airy voice then. She was sitting across the room, on the windowsill. Despite my conviction, I looked up at her. She was leaning forward with her elbow on her knees and her chin in her hands, and she looked deep in thought. Or perhaps just confused. She brushed a golden bang out of her eyes. "Who is Nicol Bolas?"

"I'll tell you later," Jace said quietly. The response he received was a scathing pout.

I couldn't help but shift my eyes over to the mind-mage when I heard his voice. There was still something in me that responded to him – wistfully, almost innately. He met them, briefly, but then something in his own clouded over and-wait, was that _guilt _I saw?-and he turned full around to stare out the window. Emmara raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head.

"So...wait a minute." Venser was sitting next to me as well, though closer than Vincenius. When I looked at him, I saw his forehead scrunched up with worry lines, and his ponderous gaze boring holes in his knees. He looked more bothered by this situation than I felt. Though to be fair, perhaps I was just too exhausted to muster the effort needed to worry. "How the hells did Bolas know you'd be traveling from Lorwyn back to Ravnica? How'd he know that you were _on _Lorwyn in the first place?" He lifted his gaze and looked over to me. The intensity in his expression made me falter a little. It also made my heart do uncomfortable things in my chest – things of worry and guilt and concern and all those other emotions that accompanied being the group failure. Perhaps more. I had to admit, I was a thoroughly jumbled mess. "I refuse to believe that he's just _that _omniscient. Something's fishy."

"Exactly my concern." Vincenius was rubbing his chin with forefinger and thumb. "He knows a great deal, but most of what he knows is gleaned through the use of informants. _Many _informants. Which means that most likely, someone tipped him off."

Venser whipped around sharply to face him at that. My stomach tied itself in knots. "Tipped him off?" I croaked. _Oh great_.

Jace groaned. At once, everyone in the room turned to look at him.

"What is it?" Vincenius asked. A note of dread had slipped into his voice. "Jace?"

With all eyes on him, Jace seemed to wither even more than he already had been. He sank down into the armchair that he had been standing in front of, heavily. "Kelmor," he muttered. He shook his head – at first in disbelief, but then almost angrily. "Godsdamn _Kelmor_."

When I looked back to Vincenius, I noticed, with a start, that his eyes had grown huge. From the way Venser stiffened abruptly beside me, it looked like he must have noticed too.

"What?" the two of us asked in unison. We shared a glance – something that would have held amusement, had the situation been different. We then both turned to Vincenius. Venser grabbed his arm, and I tried half-heartedly to sit up. _**Ow**__. Ow ow ow. Bad idea. _

"Kelmor Bloodbeard," Vincenius murmured. There was something almost akin to astonishment in the way he spoke – astonishment, or perhaps even wonderment. I couldn't tell if it was of the good sort or bad. "A dwarven pirate. An _undead _dwarven pirate. I used to work alongside his crew, centuries and centuries ago." He turned to me then. Somehow, his eyes had widened even further. "He's from Zendikar, Ranewen." I found myself baffled by his sense of urgency. What was I supposed to do about this? "Like you and I. We used to be allies. Friends. I _know _him."

"So..." It took me a long moment to gather my thoughts together. Thinking was still a relatively slow process, at the moment...though really, I didn't blame myself. Besides my injury being a debilitation, there was so much information to take in. "So what does that mean? Do you still talk to him or something?"

The mer shook his head. "No. Unfortunately, I don't." His brow furrowed. "I haven't in about two and a half centuries."

"He's no pirate now, if this is the same guy" Jace chimed in sullenly. "He's running around calling himself the 'General of Death.' A crazy, bloodthirsty, axe-wielding freak in a suit of armor. And he commands a horde of undead minions, too." There was a moment's hesitation, and then he scoffed ever so slightly. "The most wonderful company I've had in _ages_."

And there went Vincenius's eyes again, widening even more. He looked almost aghast this time. "Gods, that's _him_?" He too hesitated a moment, and then let his breath out in a long, deep exhale. "I...suppose I shouldn't be surprised. He always was more than a bit of an eccentric sort-"

"Vincenius." Venser prodded his mentor gently, with an elbow to the side. His voice was anxious. I'm sure he wouldn't have interrupted if it were otherwise. "Doc, he's the one that followed Jace here, to Ravnica. He's at a halfway point right now. Two districts over, if I remember right." He flashed Jace a questioning look – in return, Jace confirmed his assertion with a nod. The artificer turned back and hastily added, "But he doesn't know where the Consortium is, or any of its buildings. Not yet. He's waiting on word from Jace still before he can come here."

"So if I leave now..." Vincenius's voice was soft. Contemplative. He clenched and unclenched his fist several times before swiftly – and with an audible, dramatic swish of cloak, rising to his feet. His expression was creased with a grim determination. "If I leave right now, while he's still in this state of limbo, I can catch him by surprise...Have a nice little chat with him. He won't be expecting me." He gritted his teeth. They were white as pearls, almost glinting in his mouth. I had never noticed that about him before. "I'll get the information we need from him. Whether by conversation or coercion or force, I'll damn well get it. You all stay here and wait for me. Don't leave this building until I've returned."

"Wait!" Emmara's voice rang out suddenly, clear as a bell, and she practically launched herself off of the windowsill in her rush to stand. Somehow, she managed to make the movement look graceful. She took several long strides toward Vincenius even as he turned to storm out of the room, and planted her hands on her hips. Her narrowed elf eyes met mer. "You can't just go yet." She paused for breath, and glared at him fiercely. "Miss Ranewen was just recently _grievously_ injured, and there isn't a thing more I can do to help her. You promised that you would perform surgery on her so that she may heal properly, on her own. You _promised_. You _must _do this now, before you do anything else."

Vincenius slumped ever so slightly. From the look that passed across his face, I could tell that he had forgotten about that little obligation in his haste. Truth be told, I'd forgotten about it too. Now that I was remembering, I was also realizing how utterly terrifying the prospect was.

"I'm sorry, Ranewen." His gaze was, indeed, apologetic, when it alighted on mine. He had managed to catch me before I was able to look away – at something, _anything _else. "She's right. I have to." He came over to the bed. Venser scooted aside to make room for him, though he didn't leave. He must have seen my expression. His own was sympathetic, and he reached out a hand to pat my forearm. It didn't do much, but I was grateful for the comforting gesture nevertheless.

Reality was reality. No matter how much of a pathetic coward I was, I wouldn't be able to avoid this surgery...especially not if I wanted to live properly from here on out. It was inevitable. "How long will it take for me to recover from this one?" I asked him hoarsely.

"Half a day, at worst," he admitted. "That's the upside to the process. The healing that's you've already underwent is a great help too, and so that also shortens the recovery time drastically." There was a pause. When the good doctor was forced to wince at the next thought that crossed his mind, I at once knew just how bad of a time I was in for. My heart sank down to my toes.

"But I won't lie to you – It's going to hurt like hell."

* * *

><p>It had.<p>

Fortunately, no one needed me for anything in particular for the rest of the day, so I was allowed to sit back and suffer through my pain and self-pity in peace. Akroma was on guard duty as usual – on the roof overlooking the entirety of the Rubblefield and several districts beyond, which was her favorite place to be here – Venser had offered to escort Emmara back to her home in Ovitzia (it was getting dark out and he was too much of a gentleman to let her go alone, since she hadn't wanted to stay overnight in a guest room), Vincenius was off on his aforementioned "errand," and Jace was...well, gods-know-where, waiting on correspondence. He had established a distance mind-link with Vincenius, and had been assured of contact once things had been settled with Kelmor.

Me? I just wanted to be left alone. I needed time to think. And to brood.

Fortunately or unfortunately, though, I wasn't destined to get my wish.

"Rana?"

Hesitantly, I turned to face the voice's owner. _Dammit. Of all the times..._

"...Hey." I stopped walking, coming to a halt right in the center of the long walkway. Floor-to-ceiling windows lined one side, and a massive tapestry-adorned wall rose up on the other. The end I had just come from housed the branchways to the common room and the sleeping quarters where most of our beds were; the end I was walking toward housed as massive and well-maintained garden. The entirety of my body was aching at its lack of green mana. Vincenius's surgery had drained every drop of energy from me. I wanted to be surrounded by trees and plants and flowers again...even if it wasn't the same as home. I didn't want to talk.

And I especially didn't want to talk to Jace.

The whole purpose of my planned brooding was to _sort out _my emotions, dammit, not to add to them.

He took a few tentative steps closer. From the caution in his movements, I guessed that he had picked up on my discomfort. Maybe it wasn't hard. Maybe it was written all over my face. It probably was.

"Uh." He cleared his throat, mussing with his hair a little as he came to a halt. He was an acceptable distance away from me – enough to keep me from mentally short-circuiting – which was good. A promising start, at least. "I...think we should talk."

_Oh. Shit. Dammit. _Every swear word I knew came to mind, and several more. _It __**was **__good while it lasted. _"...About?"

His gaze dropped to the floor. He looked like he was biting his tongue – either that, or trying desperately to backpedal and figure out anew how to approach this. Finally, quietly, he spoke. "A lot of things. ...Especially what happened on Lorwyn."

_Dammit, if I have to be difficult, __**I will be difficult**_. "Oh. All the stuff with Kelmor?"

He gave me an exasperated look. He could see right through me. _Maybe I need a different approach. _"No, not all the stuff with Kelmor. You know what I'm talking about, Rana. Don't make this more awkward than it already is." His gaze softened – and to my surprised, he suddenly looked pained. "Please. For both of our sakes. Just...work with me...?"

Unexpectedly, I felt a twinge of remorse. I shuffled my weight from one foot to the other, noting the tenderness I felt when my abdominal muscles contracted to allow the movement. They were less sore than they were a few hours ago. Progress, I supposed.

I knew Jace was looking at me. I could feel his eyes on my face, burning with what must have been the blue fire of my own doom (far more imminent than I would have liked) – But for the life of me, I hadn't a clue as to what to say. Or do. Or anything. I wanted to talk to him, yes, I wanted to work things out for possibly even a better outcome than I could dare to hope, but...but at the same time...something just felt wrong in the pit of my stomach, and I couldn't put my finger on it-

And at that exact moment I was interrupted, rather shrilly, by a chorus of alarm bells coming from every corner of the Consortium.

Jace and I both gave rather violent starts. His eyes were wide and wary, and he had instantly jumped into a half-crouched posture: partially defensive, partially just taken aback as all hells. I'm sure I looked much the same. I could feel the faint tinge of blue mana coalesce in the air around him – and then, to my surprise, my rush of adrenaline somehow served to call a stream of _black_ mana to me as well. Why it wasn't green, and why it had happened in the first place, I couldn't explain. But I'd take it. Hells, I'd take anything at this point. It was _mana_.

Jace stiffened for a half-second, and then turned to me sharply. It took me that half-second to remember that he also had a mind-link with Akroma. "Intruders." His tone was harsh. "They're at the front entrance. They just...burst in; Akroma didn't even see where they came from!"

My heart began to pound. "How is that even possible?!"

But before I had opened my mouth, Jace had started running. He was heading back the way we came, undoubtedly toward the side stairway to the entrance that broke off from the main branchway. Without a second thought, I followed. I gasped a little as my body railed indignantly against the exertion, but I pressed on anyway. "I don't know!" he yelled over his shoulder. His voice was tense – even tenser than the situation was due, it seemed, as if he knew something terrible that I didn't. His boots pounded against the floor. "I don't know, but there's-"

Whatever Jace had been about to say, though, was drowned out quite thoroughly by the crashing and shattering of glass. I screeched to a halt. My arms instantly rose up to cover my face.

There was a loud thud, a strange sort of sizzling, and a rather unpleasant smell to greet my nostrils – burning hair, I realized. Now that I was certain I wasn't about to have my eyes poked out by a rain of pointy glass shards, I pulled my arms away.

Lying on the ground almost directly in between a horror-struck Jace and I was a young woman – tall, lean, amply-bosomed, with a cascade of dark hair that splayed out across the carpet. Her clothes were in the process of melting off of her bit by bit, sparks still licking at whatever was left. Her pale skin was covered in nasty-looking burns. Mercifully, she was unconscious. I stood there simply gaping for a moment.

And then came a snarl, in the ugliest, most vicious voice I had ever heard: "Delivery for Jace _fucking _Beleren." A wave of blistering heat hit my face right along with it.

I was almost afraid to look up, but I did.


	32. Chapter 32

**A/N: **

**To all of you who have been following this story despite my lack of consistent updates, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.**

**I'm still going to keep writing The Planeswalker Chronicles, so don't worry - I'm not going to abandon it, and if something bad ever does happen where I'm not going to be able to finish, then I will make sure to let you kind people know. I can't make concrete promises of when my updates will be from here on out, but I hope to make them much more frequent than the "once per year" that ended up just happening.**

**Though I won't deny that I've been a victim of writers' block, the main reason that I haven't been writing is that, well...I've been busy. I know that sounds callous, but it's true. I care about this story just as much as I always have, but with work - both my part-time job and my professional job - multiple moves in short time spans, and endeavors to spend time with my boyfriend and friends whom I'm not going to see for a long while after my next move, I haven't found time to myself to do much of anything.**

**I'm somewhat active on deviantART ( .com) and Tumblr ( .com), and I also post The Planeswalker Chronicles there. If you're ever wondering where my progress is at, then please feel free to send me a message on one of those sites. I check them much more often than I check my messages here.**

**Again, thank you all for bearing with me, and I hope you enjoy the chapter. **

**-Ana**

* * *

><p>I wanted to yell out 'A friend of yours?' over the din of the spiraling flames that roared around this beast of a woman and somehow kept her aloft, but I thought better of it. She did <em>not <em>look like she was having a good day.

_Join the club, lady._

Really, though, I had no room to talk, considering the fact that her version of a bad day seemed to involve a hell of a lot more rage and violence than mine.

She came slamming to the ground with a force that rattled my teeth then, leather armor and chainmail clanking together. I wondered for a split second whether her hair was covered in the ash of something burnt before I realized, no – That was just its color. Close-cropped to the side of her head, it made her look even angrier than she already did, if that was possible. I did everything I could not to recoil from her appearance. Somehow, I figured that that would be exactly what she wanted.

"Miss me, Jacey-boy?" Baltrice chuckled, taking a step forward to put a boot right in the gut of the prone woman at her feet. Though unconscious, her body twitched. I cringed inwardly. "I thought you'd be _happy_! After all this time, I finally found your zombie-sucking slutbag for ya!"

Jace blanched, and then glowered. For one second his eyes were wider than I had ever seen them, and then the next, they were glowing a brilliant blue as he gathered mana to him in a rush that made the hair on the back of my neck prickle. Whatever was going on, this was serious business.

And having at least the slightest amount of skill in putting two and two together based on social cues and past knowledge, I deduced that this serious business had to do with none other than Jace's mysterious ex. The naked brunette on the floor in front of me. Liliana Vess, wasn't it?

Things just got a lot more complicated.

"What do you want, Baltrice?" I could tell that he was doing all he could to stay composed. "The last time we parted ways, we were _still _allies. There's _no _reason for you to-"

"I PUT ON THE NECKLACE, YOU LYING SON OF A BITCH!" Jace and I both jerked back in alarm as she launched right up into the air again, borne by a pillar of fire. My ears rang. I hadn't thought it was physically possible for someone to yell that loud. Was she using magic?

It didn't matter. More importantly, _what_ necklace?

Apparently, Jace understood better than I did. Obviously, he would. This was just something I had never heard him mention. And obviously, this was something _bad –_ because he had gone white again, even whiter than before.

If I had ever seen an expression that so perfectly encompassed the emotion-thought combination of "Oh shit," it would be his right now.

Baltrice's voice was acid. "I originally came here at the request of a mutual friend of ours. Just wanted to pop by...deliver a message..." She knitted her fingers together and flexed them, cracking the joints in all her knuckles. "Maybe catch up a little...you know, just like old times." Any hint of sarcasm vanished in a single moment. "Back when you used to mind-control me like your little fucking slave."

Jace looked aghast. He stepped back, shaking his head vehemently. "No. No, Baltrice, I _told _you, I didn't...I never-"

"Shut the FUCK up!" He just barely managed to dodge a large fireball sent his way, which sizzled and hissed and left nasty scorch marks all over the carpet. What was left of it, anyway. "I did NOT come here to listen to your pathetic little excuses. _I _came here to make you watch me kick your pretty tramp's ass to every hell and back before I kick yours." Two more fireballs erupted into being, one clenched in each fist. "Maybe then I'll deliver that message. If you're still in one piece."

For once, I didn't _have _to get myself involved in the confrontation that was unfolding in front of me. It wasn't my business. I had no part in it. I could just walk away, right now, before this crazy woman even noticed me – since, for whatever reason, she hadn't thus far – and go back to my room to sleep off the leftover pain from my surgery. I could make the smart choice for once. Since I had agreed to help this godsdamned Consortium of let's-find-creative-new-ways-to-try-and-get-Rana-k illed, I'd barely had a day where I wasn't running into some sort of trouble or another. This was starting to become an issue. The last time I'd found said trouble, I'd nearly died...or, more so than usual. I wasn't sure how much more of that I could reasonably take.

And yet...despite everything...

It was Jace. And no matter how mixed my feelings were about him at the moment, there was no way I could sit there and let this woman start beating him to a pulp. Or trying to.

Besides, honestly? She was pissing me off. And I was already in a terrible mood.

Striding right in between the two combatants, I spread my arms to either side of my body. Too late, I realized that the motion yanked my still-healing abdominal muscles in a way that they clearly weren't ready for. I winced. Even so, I kept my face stern. "Alright." To my surprise, though, my voice ended up sounding rather authoritative, and pride swelled in my chest at that. "I don't know what the hells is going on here, but this is _not _something Jace has the time for-"

**Rana. ****_Rana. NO. _****What are you doing?**

"-so if you could kindlyleave the lady alone and get out of here before anyone has to take any more hostile action-"

**_SHIT_****. Rana, no, ****_STOP_****, this is a ****_really _****bad idea-**

"-then maybe we could all end the day on a good note?"

The pause that followed once I had finished lasted maybe a good two seconds before an expression of blatant disgust crossed over Baltrice's face. Narrowed eyes finally landing on mine, she threw her hand up as if dismissing me, though the gesture was more derisive than anything else.

"And who's this little bark-cunt bitch?"

My jaw dropped open. I could feel my face heating up, and the primal anger born of insult rose up in my throat in a sudden onrush of bile. "_Excuse _me?"

"You heard what I said, elf. Who the fuck are you?"

I vaguely realized that I was starting to channel black mana – Winds whipped at my hair from multiple directions, and my feet were now hovering off the ground. Beside me, Jace backed up a step. I could sense him trying to speak with me telepathically again, but his words were like buzzing in my head. I didn't hear them, and I didn't care. "Not telling you." I gritted my teeth, and pulled in that swirling miasma of power tighter, like a coiling spring. It filled me up to the brim, closing all the gaps left behind to heal and drowning even the slightest sense of discomfort. Gods, it felt _good_. "You're not worth anything but a well-aimed blast of my magic to your face."

Baltrice's lips curled in an ugly smile, which had barely lingered before it widened itself into a full-on toothy grin. Oh, I'd definitely provoked her. "Pffft. That's the best comeback you've got? Seriously?" She barked out a laugh, rising higher and higher on her pillar now. "Ah, well...I guess I _could _use an appetizer before the main course, so...sure, fine, you'll do." Those fireballs in her hands suddenly tripled in size.

"Rana!" I heard Jace's voice calling out loud this time instead of inside my head, but it still didn't matter. This fight had very quickly gotten very personal. He was groaning, sounding way beyond exasperated. "Oh, _come on_, why did you have to-"

**Just get your girlfriend out of here!** The words were out of my mental mouth before I could bite them back, and I was surprised to find out that they left behind less of a guilty aftertaste than I thought they would. Was I already starting to accept the inevitable? _Had _I been? Either way, the awkward tension in the silence that followed was palpable.

**...I'll get her to a different room, and then I'm coming back. You're still supposed to be recovering. You shouldn't be fighting. Especially not against her.**

Fortunately, each of these little exchanges was near-instantaneous in my head. Baltrice was still sizing me up, much like a hungry predator might examine its next catch before devouring it whole. On my part, I noticed that she seemed to have a one-track mind – She hadn't even noticed Jace set up an illusion of Liliana's body still lying on the floor and of his own form still standing beside me, both of them distractions as he set to work picking up the battered body and hauling her away. Granted, I _did _know what I was looking for, but still. **I can handle myself, Jace.**

There was no reply. I could sense the distress emanating from his general direction and pushing its way into my thoughts through our telepathic bond as he departed in haste, but I had suddenly decided that, really, I still didn't care.

I was injured. I was exhausted. I felt jilted and relieved at the same time for gods know what reason – I'd think about the implications of that later – and, moreover, tired of the veritable whirlwind of chaos that had become my life. It's true that I had brought myself into it by accepting the Consortium's offer, but how would it have made any rational sense to turn them down? I had had no idea what I would be getting myself into back then, and I sure as hells hadn't signed on for the slew of figuratively and literally explosive personal drama that seemed to tag along wherever this damn group of people went.

But…oh, hells.

Like it or not, this damn group of people was all I had now – even the overly-broody ones whose real feelings I had always been too naïve to see…or chosento ignore.

It was about time that I started repaying all those favors I owed them.

Without sparing my own musings so much as another second, I flew at Baltrice with palms outstretched then, and I caught her right in the unyielding chestplate before she could even process that I had just charged her.

I could feel flame licking at my hair, at my neck, at my ears, as she grabbed at me barehanded with her fireballs still very much intact, but I pushed the pain away and brought back nothing but the cold tide of black mana. She shrieked with rage as I shoved that tide right back outward, into her chest with an almost audible _thwump_. There was a breath of stillness before the spell that I had just cast imploded, and a sea of night-black and violet tendrils wrapped themselves around her and twisted, turning her shrieks into ones of pain instead. As the wind that had buffeted me up cushioned the spell's recoil and my fall, she writhed in midair for a moment before tumbling ungracefully to the ground. By the time she was standing again, I was already on my feet. My lovely and oh-so-convenient anger storm hadn't abated one bit, not even after my expenditure of power, and my body was practically pulsing with uncontained mana.

"Considered revising your previous statement yet?" I smirked. The words came out of my mouth without their normal detour to my brain.

She snarled, wiping a trickle of blood from her split lower lip. She seemed to realize that there was blood in her mouth, too, and summarily spat that out. She looked livid. _Good. _"Seriously, bitch, fuck you."

"I'll take that as a n-"

My vision blossomed with colors as, quite suddenly, a gauntleted fist slammed itself right into my gut – my healing gut – and upward, shoving me hard against the wall behind me and keeping me there. For an instant, that lifeblood of mana vanished, and all I could seem to grasp was an awful pain. Her hard-cut face was impossibly right in front of mine. I could smell her breath: alcohol, copper, rot. I wheezed as I tried to suck in air, and that only make her chuckle.

"Only the veterans get to shit-talk in battle, big girl."

"Who are you to…" There. There, white mana, and I grabbed onto it and reeled it in. Healing magic slowed the bruising, numbed the pain, and for a blessed moment I could breathe again. "…judge my rank?" Another wave of black mana shoved her backward and off of me, catching her by surprise. My eyes narrowed as I staggered away and forced all of my focus onto the statue of some merchant lord beside her that nobody would miss, and a rift in space tore itself open. She screamed as it pulled her in too fast to counter, slamming her head against the base of the statue before that was sucked away. The tear sealed closed again, dropping her to the ground like a sack of potatoes. She groaned. She tried to drag herself to her feet, one hand clutching at a new lump on her ashen head, but she wasn't about to just roll right over for me even so.

"O…Okay…that's it." Her voice was a rasp, and I could almost _feel _the effort it took her to draw forth red mana for another fireball spell. "I was just going to kick you around…f-for fun for a bit, but now I'm really…" Her breath came out in a hiss. "I'm really gonna kill you."

"I'm afraid I'm not going to allow you to do that, Baltrice."

I jumped then – both of us did – upon hearing the irritable voice echo beyond the giant hole out onto the Rubblefield where a window had once been, and both of our respective spells abated nearly as one. I felt my feet touch solid ground again.

At first I saw nothing, but then a small circular shadow began to descend upon the ground just outside that hole, growing as it came. There was no noise, not even a _whoosh _of air, from the craft as it came to a hovering halt – a disc of metal, etherium, that was perfectly round and perhaps two feet in width. It pilot stepped off neatly and onto the gravel. At first I saw that Baltrice, who had turned fully to face him, was blocking my view, but then-

"You are Ranewen, correct? The Consortium's new recruit?"

The man had walked right past Baltrice as if she meant nothing, and her gaze, slightly open-mouthed, followed him unblinkingly. Now he came to a halt a few yards away on the crisped carpet, his arms held loose at his sides.

When I saw the mass of jagged, twisted etherium that shaped one of them all the way down to his empty gut, I felt like I had just gotten punched in my own all over again.

Thin lips pulled upward into a smile, and the man with the white braids and the weathered face and the faint glow to his eyes – red to match whatever kind of demon magic lit his metal parts from beneath – stepped forward and extended a hand. His flesh one, thank the gods.

At least, I hoped it was.

"I apologize for my subordinate's behavior." He glanced back at Baltrice, and I swore that for the barest instant I saw her _wither_, shrinking back against the clutter beneath her. "She was instructed to simply deliver a message, but _clearly_ her personal business got in the way of her ability to carry out orders." His smile widened, tight and dangerous, and for a moment it seemed as if he were looking to the side of my face at something behind me rather than meeting my eyes. I didn't dare look away, though, and by that time the moment had passed. His gaze was locked to mine again. "But no matter. I decided to come here myself, so all is well.

I came here today to speak to you of matters that concern a, ah…" There was a pause wherein his smile tightened even further, and he cleared his throat lightly – little good it did him, considering that his voice was already a rasp. "…_mutual friend _of ours. You'll recall him. I've come to understand that he is the only dragon you know."

_Oh gods no. _I felt suddenly sick. What would happen if I just threw up on the floor now?_ No, no no no. Not this._

"I believe you'll find it to be in your best interest if you come with me."


End file.
